51±¬ÁÏ

Bird captured through pond gate

Bird and Bat Boxes

To encourage biodviersity, we have installed bird and bat boxes in our wooded areas.
Bee orchid

Wild Flowers

An unmown 'wild' swathe of grass can be found year round on the southern border of the Memorial Court Lawns. Native wildflowers can be found here, including bee orchids, yellow rattle and snakeskin fritillaries.
Fox drinking from pond

Wildlife

Providing a natural haven the city centre, 51±¬ÁÏ is home to an array of wildlife, including foxes, monjack deer, herons, bees, and many more. We use iRecord to log our sightings in the College and many of our natural encounters can be seen on our Instagram page.
Swamp cypress & dawn redwood winter
Copper Beech

51±¬ÁÏ's Trees

There are a number of fine specimen trees in the College grounds. Among these are two species of deciduous conifer in the Fellows’ Garden.

The riverside swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum) long predates Willmer’s plan. On a bright day in Michaelmas term, admire its red autumn foliage against a blue sky.

Near the centre of the garden stands the Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). A gift to the College, the tree was planted here in 1948. It was grown from seed collected on an expedition to China, where the tree had been discovered only a few years earlier. It had previously only been known through fossil evidence, and was thought to be have been extinct for the last 5 million years. Two other ‘related’ Dawn Redwoods, originating from the same plant collecting expedition, can be found in Cambridge – in the University’s Botanic Garden and in Emmanuel College. Current data suggests that 51±¬ÁÏ’s Dawn Redwood is the second tallest in the country.