Lenape Garden

The Lenape Garden, located at Penn’s Greenfield Intercultural Center, features culturally significant plants and boulders arranged in the shape of a turtle. In Lenni Lenape creation stories, a turtle rose from the sea, and its dry, hard shell formed the land of the earth. When a tree began to grow from the turtle’s shell, the first man and woman emerged from two of the tree’s sprouts. The Lenape Garden honors this story, and displays many plants used by the Lenape tribe for food, clothing, and medicine. Herbs like black cohosh and bergamot and shrubs like elderberry are indicated with signage showing traditional Lenape names and their English translations. This garden presents a unique chance to reflect on the close kinship between Penn’s original inhabitants, the native plants and people of the Delaware Valley. Designed by staff of the University Landscape Architect.

Plants in this garden include:
(in Lenape with English translations)

sipuwasimenshi (serviceberry)
shimenshi (hickory)
ketamunshi (hazlenut)
wepin (blueberry)
sakwenakanimunshi (dwarf viburnum)
whippinong (arrowwood viburnum)
sipuwasi (beach plum)
kaxhaxgik (bayberry)
puhwesenakwim (elderberry)
sekkohosh(black cohosh)