Growing up in coastal eastern Massachusetts and having spent the last four years in Vermont, I would have never imagined myself living in New York City. I’ve always been surrounded by large tracts of conservation lands, particularly beautiful tracts of northern hardwood forest and dune communities. I was curious about the state of the natural areas in and around New York City and admittedly did not have high expectations for the areas. After spending a week with a few trips to natural sites around the city I’m happy to say that so far I have been pleasantly surprised by the state of the area. As expected, there is a fair about of trash strewn about and some areas have been subjected to heavy public use. However, the amount of plant diversity and native species still remaining in what seemed like a jungle of invasive species was surprising to me.
Over the course of the week we were able to identify about 15 species on our collection list. For someone who is fairly well versed in the flora of the Northeast, I was thrilled to find myself learning new species. I’ve recently been working on getting better at identifying grass and grass-like species. I find them somewhat challenging to key out if you can’t identify them through familiarity and gestalt. Everyone’s favorite so far seems to be the black rush, Juncus gerardii, due to its minute yet stunning flowers and ease of identification.
Our collection list also includes a few groups of species in what I consider to be troublesome genera and closely related genera, specifically Viburnum, Vaccinium, and Gaylussacia. We encountered a few mystery Viburnum during our field days, which we concluded were likely ornamental non-natives. We also found these Vaccinium and Gaylussacia species growing side by side, which helped us process the differences between the two. In this photo the Vaccinium is on the right and the Gaylussacia is on the left.
While of course the plants were interesting and I was excited to learn new species, the scenery wasn’t bad either! For such a developed landscape, there are certainly some hidden gems of natural areas in the city. In the next few weeks to come I can’t wait to discover even more hidden paradises in Long Island, New Jersey, and Delaware!
Paige Carncross
SOS East Intern for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank