Historical Name: Newark, NJ Washington
Common Name: Sycamore
Latin Name: Platanus occidentalis
Newark’s oldest and most historic tree died and was cut down in 2013. Disease, old age, decay, and strong winds had reduced this once majestic Sycamore tree to not much more than a stout trunk and a few branches in the last years of its life. Known as Washington’s Tree, it grew in the city’s Military Park, and witnessed some interesting American history. In November of 1776 General George Washington and his troops camped near the tree during their retreat across New Jersey, pursued by General Cornwallis and his British forces. Legend has it that Thomas Paine, traveling with Washington, began writing The American Crisis with its famous line “These are the times that try men’s souls” beneath the boughs of this tree.
An offspring of the tree grows in UCNJ’s Historic Tree Grove, having germinated from a seed collected from the parent tree in 2002, and planted into the Grove in 2007.