American Elms
Lining the mall are part of an early campus landscaping plan that called for trees and other plantings to be used as an arboretum for teaching and research purposes. While age and disease take their toll, Penn State still has one of the largest elm stands in the nation. Gifts from the class of 1986 purchased new trees for the mall, and the class of 1996 endowed a fund for preserving all the elms.