By Matt Ern, Staff Writer

It is a known fact that the Hofstra campus is one of 430 arboreta in the country, hosting 1,200 deciduous and evergreen trees as well as over 625 species of plants.  Some of these plants are native North American plants, while other species are more rare and exotic.  The arboretum also contains a two-acre bird sanctuary that houses a variety of species and contains a rock waterfall.  But there is a myth on campus that one of the trees is worth upwards of $1,000,000.  

While most students have heard the rumor, few believe a tree could actually be worth $1,000,000.  “It’s probably not real,” said junior Robert Intreglia.  Another student joked, “If there was one, I’d be digging it up”.  Sophomore Nick Adamo mused, “Sounds too expensive, but with Hofstra I wouldn’t be surprised”.  One student who had never heard of the myth before said, “It’d be nice if that were true”.

But it’s time to lay that rumor to rest.  Director of grounds and landscaping Frederick Soviero says that “there’s no tree with a monetary value of $1,000,000” on campus.  In fact most trees Hofstra buys “cost only $200 or $300 because we get them when they’re young”, and many more are donated.  However, any myth has to come from somewhere.  

Soviero has confirmed that the most amount of money Hofstra has ever paid for a tree was “$16,000 to transplant a rare Chinese Quince in 1990”.  The tree had been growing in a yard at a house in Thomaston, NY.  The owner wanted to chop down the tree, but the town has an ordinance stating that you must report what tree you want to remove before it can be chopped down, that way new trees can be planted to replace it accordingly.  

When Hofstra found out an exotic tree was in danger, it got involved.  “It would be a shame to see a tree that old go, so we did some fundraising to cover the cost of transplanting the tree.  A lot of the students got involved, it was great,” said Soviero.  The tree took a grand total of 16 months to move to campus from the Long Island town.The tree is the largest Chinese Quince on the East Coast, standing at 42 feet, and currently resides in Roosevelt quad.

It is in Kate Mason Hofstra’s will that the Hofstra estate, formerly known as The Netherlands, retain the same beautiful wildlife that it did back before it was a university.

Joshua Zager (The Chinese Quince residing on Camous did not cost 1 million dollars.)