30.5036°N -89.6662°WThe Crosby Arboretum is located in Picayune, Mississippi, United States, and is affiliated with Mississippi State University.[1] It contains 64 acres (259,000 m2) in its interpretive center, plus over 700 acres (2.8 km2) in seven additional natural areas, sheltering over 300 species of indigenous trees and shrubs.[2]
The Arboretum project was initiated by Lynn Crosby Gammill and her husband Stewart Gammill along with her brother Osmond Crosby to honor their father, L. O. Crosby, Jr. (1907–1978), by conserving the region's biological diversity and showcasing plants native to the Pearl River drainage basin. The seven natural areas in Pearl River, Hancock, and Lamar counties were selected for diversity of vegetation, and are preserved and managed for research. These areas contain longleaf pine forests, slash pine hardwoods, sweet bay-tupelo-swamp bay, beech-magnolia, bald cypress-tupelo, bottomland hardwoods, hillside bogs, and savannas.
The Arboretum is home to the Pinecote Pavilion designed by the late E. Fay Jones. Jones was an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright and followed many of Wright's design principles. The pavilion is one of the architectural jewels of Mississippi.
In 1991, Pinecote Pavilion has received an Honor award from the American Institute of Architects and secured Jones to win the AIA Gold Medal. Pinecote, the 64-acre Interpretive Center, was sensitively designed by consultants Andropogon Associates and site master planner Edward L. Blake, Jr. The design for Pinecote received a 1991 Honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and an ASLA Medallion Award (1999). Pinecote features walking journeys through 20 acres of biologically-enhanced savanna exhibits, 40 acres of woodland succession, and nearly 4 acres of created waterways.