Janice Hamilton Haldeman Arboretum at Erskine

The Janice Hamilton Haldeman Arboretum at Erskine is in Due West, South Carolina, on the 93-acre campus of Erskine College. Due West is in the Upstate region, the most biologically diverse area in South Carolina and one of the most diverse in the world. Erskine College, founded in 1839, is listed in the National Historic Register as the Due West-Erskine National Historic District.

The Janice Hamilton Haldeman Arboretum at Erskine includes native trees dating to pre-colonial times and earlier, as well as native and non-native species planted by design in the 18th and 19th centuries. It features trees planted in the last quarter of the 19th century to landscape the campuses of Erskine College and the former Due West Woman's College as well as trees planted in the mid-20th century and the 1980s to develop and beautify the combined campuses.

A Cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus libani, a non-native tree that calls to mind Erskine's faith heritage, is perhaps the quintessential tree in the arboretum's collection. It was planted in 1938 and is estimated to be about 90 years old. Cedars like this one are referenced approximately 50 times in the Bible. In the First Book of Kings (I Kings 5), cedar is used in the construction of Solomon's temple. 

Willow oaks on the quadrangle known as the Erskine Mall make up a distinctive collection of the arboretum on our main campus. As a special project of the Board of Trustees in about 1980, these trees were planted to create a pedestrian highway through the main campus. Native to the southeastern United States, these trees, each with an oval or rounded crown, can live more than 100 years and grow 50 to 100 feet tall and 25 to 50 feet wide. Willow oaks are host plants for the larvae of the Imperial moth (Eacles imperialis) as well as for the larvae of numerous butterflies, including the Banded hairstreak (Satyrium calanus), Edwards’ hairstreak (Satyrium edwardsii), Gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus), White-m hairstreak (Parrhasius malbum), Horace’s duskywing (Erynnis horatius), and Juvenalis duskywink (Erynnis juvenalis).