Edith J. Carrier Arboretum at James Madison University

Found on the campus of James Madison University, Edith J. Carrier Arboretum visitors can enjoy over 3 miles of manicured walking trails through 125 acres of mature Oak-Hickory Forrest. The arboretum’s winding woodland trails are landscaped with Virginia native plants, some rare and unusual including puttyroot and lady’s slipper, both native orchids.  Or habitat-specific plants can be found at the arboretum, where visitors can see a shale barren rich with white-haired leather flower, spike moss, hairy lipped fern, shining sumac, and even the rare Kate's-mountain clover. A luxurious springtime annual display of trail-side wild phlox and Virginia bluebell, pinxter flower and flame azalea is unparalleled in beauty. No visitor should miss the opportunity to breathe deeply while climbing the terraced herb garden. And to spend a moment is to find an eternity within a pause in a wooded swale carpeted with New York, hay-scented, ostrich, marginal shield, and Christmas ferns. Extraordinary in beauty and scope, the Arboretum's forested slopes and lowland swale also are haven for many species of trees native to the mid-Appalachians, some of them rare or endangered like Betula uber, round-leaf birch.