Peter Del Tredici
My botanical career started in 1972 as a technician running the research greenhouses at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts where I studied nitrogen-fixation in non-leguminous plants. In 1979, I started working at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in Boston and continued there until my retirement in 2014. During those 35 years, I served as the Assistant Plant Propagator, Curator of the Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection, Editor of Arnoldia, Director of Living Collections, and Senior Research Scientist.
My research interests are wide ranging and include subjects such as the trees and shrubs of temperate China, the root systems of woody plants, the botany and horticulture of magnolias, stewartias and hemlocks, and the natural and cultural history of the Ginkgo tree. Since 2004, my work has focused on urban ecology and climate change.
I was also an Associate Professor in Practice in the Landscape Architecture Department at the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 1992 through 2016 where I taught a range of courses from plant identification to soils to urban ecology and climate change. From 2016 through 2019, I taught in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at MIT. In 2013, I was awarded the prestigious Veitch Gold Medal by The Royal Horticultural Society (England) “in recognition of services given in the advancement of the science and practice of horticulture.”
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Peter Del Tredici with the bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla) at the Arnold Arboretum. Photo by S. Klaw.
Spontaneous silver maple (Acer saccharinum) growing along the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge MA.