Lincoln Park Zoo has been increasing its profile as a caretaker of plants and trees as much as animals, and it now has official accreditation as a botanic garden to show for it.

Lincoln Park Zoo said farewell today to a 300-year-old bur oak, but the tree will live on in multiple ways.

A bur oak has towered over the zoo’s south lawn, opposite the primate house, since before there even was a zoo. It even predates the founding of the United States of America.