Historical Name: Robin Hood
Common Name: English Oak
Latin Name: Quercus robur
The Robin Hood English Oak that grows in New York is a descendant of a famous tree in England’s Sherwood Forest, the home of the Robin Hood legends. The dense cover of trees in Sherwood Forest was said to give him cover as he robbed from the rich to give to the poor. The legend says that before each raid, Robin Hood would meet in secrecy with Little John, Will Scarlet, and other members of his outlaw band under the knotted, twisted Major Oak. In 1926 Professor Nelson C. Brown collected an acorn from the Major Oak and planted it on the campus of the State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences. The acorn grew into a sprawling tree that still stands today. This tree grew from a seed taken from the Robin Hood English Oak, and was planted into UCNJ’s Historic Tree Grove in 1998.
(text adapted from American Forests)