Boston Flora

Tag: Pat Swain

  • Saturday, August 12 – Field Trip to Pepperell Springs Conservation Area

    Join The New England Botanical Club and explore interesting places with great plants, led by local expert botanists. Participants must contact the trip leader 1 week in advance. The final summer trip will take place Saturday, August 12 to Pepperell Springs Conservation Area in Pepperell, Massachusetts.

    This trip focuses on natural communities, including rich Northern Hardwoods forest (Sugar Maple – Oak – Hemlock Forest patches with Hemlock stands, occasional talus slopes, an intermittent stream) and mixed oaks with mountain laurel, hemlock stands, Red Oak – Sugar Maple Transition Forest. We’ll also visit a rock outcrop with a cedar glade-like area and patches of rich Sugar Maple – Oak – Hickory Forest, mixed with hemlocks. Anyone who wants to can return to Heald Pond with their own kayaks or canoe and explore areas with purple bladderworts, water lilies, floating peat islands with poison sumac, and acidic fen conditions). For more information go to Pepperell Trail Guide (PDF), Pepperell Springs Conservation Area (PDF), and Pepperell Springs Map (PDF). Level of Difficulty – Moderate – we’ll be mostly on trail on dry ground, with some steep sections. Trip leader: Pat Swain (pcswain@zizania.org). Pat will send meeting time, location, and directions to those who register for the trip.

  • Wednesdays, June 18 – July 16 – New England Plant Communities

    The diversity of plant communities in New England is truly astounding, including multiple forest types, freshwater wetlands, coastal dunes, grasslands, heathlands, tidal marshes, and montane communities. Understanding the dominant canopy species, indicator species, and range helps us to interpret our own landscape’s ecological identity. Lectures at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, sponsored by the New England Wild Flower Society, cover effects of soils, topography, moisture, geological conditions, and glaciation. Field trips to study the composition and structure of some distinctive plant communities complement the lectures. Extensive handouts included. Dates are Wednesdays, June 18 (6 – 8), June 25 (5 – 8), July 2 (5 – 8), July 9 (6 – 8) and July 16 (6 – 8.) Pat Swain, Community Ecologist, MA Natural Heritage Endangered Species Program, will be the instructor, and the fee is $227 for NEWFS members, $267 for nonmembers. Register online at http://www.newfs.org/learn/catalog/bot4000.