The Quercus suber, or cork oak, on the south side of the Engineering Building is the largest on campus, and quite possibly the largest in Tucson. Although there is no record of the year it was planted, one voucher specimen at the UA herbarium dates back to 1936. The tree, a Campus Arboretum Heritage Tree and and a Great Tree of Arizona, lives in the memory of students and faculty who have called UA their home. Steve Fazio, former Professor of Plant Sciences, spotlighted the tree on his own tree tours for new students in the late 1940’s. More recently, alumni who were on campus in the 1960’s remember using it as part of a fraternity scavenger hunt. Today students of botany, landscape architecture, ecology, and other sciences learn about the centuries-old technique of sustainably harvesting cork by peeling off the bark.
