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• Petersburg, Illinois - Starhill Forest Arboretum torreya page
Located on 48 acres in Menard County in west-central Illinois, Starhill Forest is the teaching arboretum of Illinois College, developed by the Sternberg family beginning in 1976.
Its primary scientific feature is a quercetum (oak collection) comprising one of the most comprehensive oak reference collections recognized by the North American Plant Collections Consortium. Approximately 2000 taxa of woody plants are available for study, as well as natural forest, water features, herb and perennial landscapes, a native prairie garden, several county and state champion trees, provenance tests, and a conifer plantation.
The Illinois College Starhill Forest page reads:
In October 2008, Guy and Edie Sternberg formalized their partnership with Illinois College, creating the College's official arboretum.
Correspondence by Guy Sternberg with Torreya Guardians autumn 2024 reports that 6 Florida torreya trees are now between 5 and 8 feet tall. Two smaller ones acquired from the Missouri Botanical Garden in 2018 are now about 3 feet tall.
• All historical information can be found (via Wayback Machine): Starhill Forest Arboretum homepage.
• Lisle, Illinois (Chicago) - Morton Arboretum torreya page
CONNIE BARLOW reported: November 2, 2017, my husband and I were near Chicago, and I realized that the famed Morton Arboretum would be a superb home for the one remaining seedling I had been nurturing in a pot out west from the set of 3,900 seeds that Frank Callahan had donated to Torreya Guardians from his 2-tree harvest in Medford OR, fall 2016. See video: "Florida Torreya Seed Production in Medford OR."
Morton already had an Asian species onsite, T. nucifera, and they are a leader in promoting future-adapted species for street tree plantings in Chicago.
The near PHOTO was taken June 17.
• Alpha, Illinois - Alpha torreya page
SITE DESCRIPTION: Seeds were free-planted in 3 distinct sites under deciduous canopy. Two sites are flat and one is a north-facing hill of the Mississippi River bluffs.
INITIAL PLANTING: Summer of 2023, Jake Wells received 40 seeds from the 2022 fall harvest in Clinton NC. He planted them in late July of 2023. Because virtually no torreya seeds will germinate after only 1 winter stratification (and some require as many as 3 winter stratifcations), he knew that the first seedlings would emerge only mid-summer 2024.
PHOTO LEFT (9 July 2024): This is the first seedling to germinate. The site is approx. 25 miles east of the Mississippi River bluffs and about 4 miles from bluffs along the Edwards River in northwestern Illinois.
Overstory species at this site include pin oak, american ash, black locust. The ground is flat and does retain some water after a large rain event.
It is part of a group of 3 seeds that were planted roughly 5 feet off a stretch of roadway. Each was planted about 1.5 inches deep and was covered with layers of oak leaves over the winter.
• Peoria, Illinois - Peoria torreya page
CHRISTOPHER HUTSON volunteered to plant Florida torreya, Spring 2024. Connie Barlow sent him 20 seeds that she had stratified in Michigan for 1 winter, using seeds from our Cleveland OHIO planter, Fred Bess. The seeds came from his fall 2023 harvest, so Chris was told he would need to winter stratify them once more, and then some (but now all) would germinate Spring 2025.
Late March 2025, 13 of the healthy 19 seeds germinated.
Chris wrote that his property is in the Kickapoo Creek watershed and includes a steep ravine with sandstone outcrops. The steepness of the slope, with lots of Christmas ferns under a deciduous canopy, look like ideal habitat.
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