Smithsonian Garden Lead Scientist on the 56-Million-Year Story of the American Oak

In 2004, after a four-month public vote organized by the National Arbor Day Foundation, Congress designated the oak — the genus Quercus — as the national tree of the United States. On Thursday afternoon, in a livestreamed lecture timed to the 250th anniversary of the country, oak scientist Andrew Hipp will trace how that designation got the science exactly right: oaks have been doing the heavy lifting in Northern Hemisphere forests for roughly 56 million years.

Hipp, director of the herbarium and senior scientist in plant systematics at The Morton Arboretum and a lecturer at the University of Chicago, has led one of the world’s most ambitious oak research programs for more than a decade. His lecture, hosted by The Huntington’s botanical staff, will cover the natural history and reproduction biology of oaks, the origins of oak species and their hybrids, and the way successive ice ages, climate shifts and continental movements shaped today’s roughly 500 species. Spotlights on significant oaks at both The Huntington in San Marino and Smithsonian Gardens in Washington, D.C., will follow the global overview.

Hipp has received a 2014 Fulbright Fellowship in France for his work on oak diversity, a 2018 Distinguished Informal Science Education Award from the National Science Teachers Association, and a 2023 Fulbright Specialist Award in Germany. His book “Oak Origins: From Acorns to Species and the Tree of Life” was published in 2024 by the University of Chicago Press.

The Huntington maintains oaks as a core botanical collection and has invested significantly in oak conservation research. Registration for the livestream is free and available through the Huntington’s website.

“The Mighty Oak: America’s National Tree” with Andrew Hipp will take place Thursday, June 4 at 4 p.m. as a livestreamed lecture from The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, in San Marino. Admission is free. For more information and to register for the livestream, call (626) 405-2100 or visit huntington.org.