Hours & Contact

The arboretum is open during daylight hours throughout the year. The Melva Lind Interpretive Center is open weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

To contact arboretum personnel call 507-933-6181or email arboretum@gustavus.edu.

Linnaeus Arboretum

Linnaeus Arboretum, on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College, provides an environment to educate the mind, revive the spirit, exercise the heart, and delight in Minnesota's natural history.

The arboretum is named for Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), a Swedish botanist who devised the binomial nomenclature system (Latin genus and species) we use today. The arboretum was established in 1973 with the planting of tree seedlings on what had previously been agricultural land.

The three major natural ecosystems found in Minnesota are represented in the arboretum including the northern conifer forests, prairies of the south and west, and deciduous forests from central Minnesota. Formal gardens surround the Melva Lind Interpretive Center and include over 100 species of cultivated trees introduced from other regions.