Monday, October 29, 2007

Potts Park Update

Heavy rains have slowed installation of new play equipment at Potts Park, the little pocket park that time almost forgot and most Princetonians don't know exists.

















Construction vehicles were trapped in high water, causing further delays. Bob the Builder says he's doing everything he can to get the project back on track.















Meanwhile, a small, climbable forest has been planted on the south side of the park, and is expected to grow in fun potential over the next few days.

October's Native Plant Workshop--Plants in the Ground

This past Sunday's workshop featured a tour of habitat restoration projects sprouting along the edge of Pettoranello Gardens, followed by a planting session next to the upper Mountain Lake. We had gorgeous weather and lots of wildflowers to put in the ground--all grown from locally collected seed in order to preserve whatever traits the local genotypes may have to offer.

Hibiscus, swamp milkweed, cutleaf coneflower, sneezeweed (it doesn't make you sneeze) and woodgrass (actually a sedge) were planted in full sun along the water's edge and marked by stakes and string to protect them from accidental mowing.

With some luck, Mountain Lakes offerings for pollinators next year will be markedly improved.

Thanks to all who came and enjoyed the weather, each other's company, cider and cookies provided by Whole Earth Center, and the satisfaction of making a glorious setting even more so.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Native Plant Workshop, Sept. 23, 2pm


At this month's 4th Sunday installment of the Native Plant Workshop, to which all are welcome, we’ll discuss two new initiatives. One is to collect seed of native species this fall, for growing seedlings next spring. The other is to organize and train volunteers to inventory plant life in Princeton’s parks and preserves, for inclusion in an Environmental Resource Inventory being prepared this year.

Following the discussion, we’ll head to Rogers Refuge (photo), a birding mecca below the Institute Woods, where an “accidental” man-made marsh hosts 100 species of plants. This time of year, redwinged blackbirds are gobbling down wild rice, and blooms can still be seen of pickerelweed and tickseed sunflower. No boots necessary, since we'll stick to gravel roads and the observation tower.

Meet at the Whole Earth Center in Princeton, at 360 Nassau Street.

The workshops are sponsored by Friends of Princeton Open Space and the Whole Earth Center.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Tickseed Sunflower Along Quakerbridge Road

Take a drive out towards Route 1 on Quaker Road and you'll find the roadside near the canal filled with bright yellow. Though goldenrod plays a part, the chief protagonist is tickseed sunflower. Unlike the many species of native perennial sunflower, this one's an annual, in the genus Bidens.



Bidens was one of the showiest wildflowers along bike trails when I lived in Durham, NC, and though I'd lived here in Princeton for four years, I had yet to see it growing here in abundance until I turned the corner on Quaker Bridge Road and saw it stretching out across a broad field.








This photo was taken a few days past full bloom, but halfway out into the field was a bright yellow world teaming with monarch butterflies bouncing from sunflower to sunflower. The butterflies are by now making the long journey to a hilltop in Mexico for the winter, and the Bidens are making seeds for next year's Really Big Show.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Princeton Freshmen Take On Ailanthus

There's a bench at Turning Basin Park in Princeton, located strategically on a bluff overlooking the canal. Nice view, except that the canal could not be seen due to a wall of Tree of Heaven sprouts that had grown up in front of the bench.

This past Friday, the view of the canal was restored, thanks to a workday organized by Princeton WaterWatch and Butler College. While a couple picnicked on the bench, 25 Princeton University freshmen came down to the canal and cleared the Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus) from the slope between Turning Basin Park and the canal. I gave them an introductory spiel about the role of Friends of Princeton Open Space in town and the value of doing habitat restoration.

Though most had arrived with little knowledge of plants, they soon found themselves vigorously taking on Princeton's most invasive tree. While clearing the view for the one bench, they found another that had disappeared completely beneath the swarming invasive growth (on the left in the photo). A highly invasive vine, Porcelain Berry, was also cut along the slope. Any resprouts next year should be considerably weaker, since cutting them this time of year will cheat their roots of any nutrients the leaves and stems would have sent down in preparation for winter.



The view of the canal restored (the couple were comically oblivious to our efforts), the students then treated themselves to canoe rides. All in all a fun and rewarding afternoon.

PDS Student Make a Difference at Mountain Lakes

Mountain Lakes, part of 400 acres of preserved land between 206 and the Great Road, is a popular hiking spot for Princetonians. Home base of the Friends of Princeton Open Space, its habitat is in great need of ecological restoration.

On September 7, 100 Princeton Day School freshmen and accompanying faculty arrived at Mountain Lakes for their second annual community workday. PDS has informally adopted the area in the upper right of the photo, stretching upstream along the two creeks that feed the lakes.


Using loppers, the students broke up into workgroups and took on the thorny multiflora rose that has displaced native species from floodplains in Princeton, as it has all over the eastern U.S.

Two hours later, large piles of the cut invasive rose were amassed in the woods, and native species like blackhaw Viburnum, sassafras and spicebush suddenly had more room to grow.

The students showed great perseverance and teamwork in achieving an impressive transformation of the landscape.

Here, two students push the thorny shrub's branches out of the way with garden rakes, allowing another student to reach in and cut the stems at the base with loppers.

After lunch, the students returned to learn more about the ecological forces at work in the preserve.

During the past couple Aprils, the ENACT environmental group from PDS, led by Liz Cutler, has also come to Mountain Lakes to help with invasive species control.

Thanks to all the students for their hard work. And thanks to Mark Widmer for coming by to take photos.

Scout Restores Lost Trail in Community Park North

Stray into the woods behind Pettoranello Gardens, across 206 from the Community Park soccer fields, and you may wonder if you've happened upon ruins of an ancient civilization lost in the overgrowth. Strange towers rise out of the thickets, and improbably massive picnic tables lay half-sunken in the dirt. Markers reveal the identity of various trees, suggesting a nature trail once meandered through this forgotten landscape.

Old rec dept. maps show that trails did in fact once traverse this area, but most disappeared beneath the invasion of exotic shrubs over the past couple decades. Multiflora rose silently covered this land in a Sleeping Beauty-like shroud of thorns.

Then along came Harald Zurakowski, Princeton resident, seeking an eagle scout project. With help from the Friends of Princeton Open Space and the township, Harald planned his project, then mobilized family and friends over the Labor Day weekend to reblaze lost trails and make this place hospitable once again for hikers and native species.


Harald poses in front of one of the Long-Buried Climbing Towers of Community Park North.

















This is a "before" shot, showing the intimidating thicket of multiflora rose, privet and shrub honeysuckle that Harald and friends took on with nothing more than handtools and grit. The goal was to create a viewscape in towards Pettoranello Pond from higher ground nearby.







In the process, they created access to a rocky creek next to Pettoranello Gardens.












After the viewscape was successfully cleared, they planted native wildflowers and ferns provided by Mapleton Nurseries. A few native shrubs--silky dogwood and spicebush--were spared during the clearing.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Prairie at Bowman Hills Wildflower Preserve

One of the finest examples of native grassland in the area can be found at the entry to Bowman Hills Wildflower Preserve, along the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. I stopped by last Friday, while driving from Washington Crossing to New Hope, and found it in full bloom. The photo shows Wild Senna, which likes the wetter soils at the bottom of the slope. All the classic prairie grasses can be found here: Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indian Grass and Switchgrass. The Big Bluestem--the dominant grass of the tallgrass prairies of the midwest--are eight feet high.

In Princeton, the most likely place for future native grasslands to be planted is in the retention basins at local parks. One such project is underway at Farm View Fields, with help from Partners for Fish and Wildlife.

Indian Grass is the most common warm-season prairie grass to be found in the area. It needs sun, so likes areas that are mowed yearly, such as roadsides and right of ways. The anthers give it a golden tint this time of year. Back in pre-colonial times, it would have been munched on by buffalo, whose range once extended to the east coast.

Wild Rice at Rogers Refuge

One of the more spectacular sights this time of year in Princeton is the wild rice blooming at the Rogers Wildlife Refuge. Though sometimes called "the Institute Pond", the refuge is actually located on water company property. A giant step towards restoration of the marsh was taken last year when Partners for Fish and Wildlife treated the invasive giant Phragmitis reeds that were slowly but surely taking over the marsh. Quickly taking the place of the Phragmitis monoculture is an impressive array of natives, including the wild rice, pickerel weed, arrow arum and water plantain. The refuge lies between the Institute Woods and Stony Brook, at the end of West Drive. It's best known as a birding mecca, and is taken care of through a collaboration between Friends of Rogers Refuge (FORR), the township and the water company. To get there, take Alexander Road down almost to the canal, turn right on West Drive and stay left until you reach the small parking area next to the observation tower.




Wild rice, like corn, is an annual that grows to astonishing heights in a single season. Most people associate it with Minnesota, but it flourishes in Princeton, the Trenton Marsh, along the Connecticut River, and I've even seen it growing in a stream in Florida.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Canal Towpath Walk on Saturday, August 11, 10am


Many of the showiest wildflowers along the canal in Princeton bloom this time of year. I'll be leading a walk along the towpath this Saturday, August 11, at 10am, starting where the towpath crosses Washington Road in Princeton. There's a parking lot next to Washington Rd. just south of Carnegie Lake and the canal, where a service drive heads up to the university's ballfields. If you get there late, we'll be heading eastward along the towpath, towards Harrison Street.
The land along the canal hosts a remarkable diversity of native wildflowers, thanks to its combination of sunny openings and moist ground. The reduced mowing regime instituted last year by the D&R Greenway State Park has allowed many previously suppressed species to flower and spread.
The walk is sponsored by the Friends of Princeton Open Space.

(The photo is of Purple-Headed Sneezeweed, named of course for its reddish brown center, yellow petals, and general lack of sneeziness)

Monday, August 06, 2007

INVASIVE ALERT--Mile-a-Minute in Princeton!!

A new invasive plant has made its way to Princeton. While passing by on a bicycle, I found it growing next to a driveway within sight of the Princeton Shopping Center. It's triangular leaves and curved spines are unmistakeable. "Mile-a-Minute" is it's name--appropriate given its rate of growth.
I'll add to this post when I find out where else it's been found, whether it's officially listed as a noxious plant in NJ, and any details about what to do if you find it. In the meantime, keep an eye out for it. If you find it, let me know, and if it's on your property pull it out!

Update, 3/2011: After stopping by several times to knock on the door, I finally met the homeowner, who was glad to get rid of the weed. We pulled it out before it could make seeds, and haven't seen it since.




Thursday, July 26, 2007

Canal Wildflower Bonanza


This is the start of prime time along the canal. The area I walk is just west of Harrison Street. All the classic floodplain wildflowers are blooming. Just finishing up are tall meadow rue, lizard's tail and buttonbush (white flowers), and purple-headed sneezeweed (yellow). Just coming on is the small forest of cutleaf coneflowers (yellow) that grow up to 8 feet high. Though fewer in numbers, you may see JoePyeWeed, swamp milkweed, and fringed loosestrife.
The purple spires, mostly along the canal, are purple loosestrife, a highly invasive exotic. Tyrol knapweed, also an exotic, has violet flowers.
The blackberries are abundant and ripe, and shrubs like elderberry, Arrowwood Viburnum (photo) and silky dogwood are heavy with ripening berries for the birds.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Some Canal Wildflowers


Tall Meadow Rue -- One of the many native species that thrives in sunny, wet areas, of which there are few in Princeton.








Swamp Rose--This is the native rose, found growing on the banks of Lake Carnegie and the canal.






Crown Vetch--This is an invasive exotic groundcover. It used to be planted along highways, before its invasiveness was recognized. It's common along highway 76 in Pennsylvania, and also pops up in Princeton here and there.











St. JohnsWort

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Late June Wildflowers Along the Towpath

(You can type any of these names into an internet search engine to find info)


Tall Meadow Rue
St. John's Wort
Silky Dogwood (fading)
Elderberry (shrub; berries good for making jelly, if the birds don't get them first)
Daisy Fleabane (very common)
Purple-Headed Sneezeweed (just opening)
Purple Loosestrife (invasive exotic--fortunately not too many thus far)
Swamp Rose (the native rose, with a pink flower, as opposed to the exotic multflora rose)
Lizard's Tail (grows at edge of Carnegie Lake)

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Wetland Garden Plants Get Upscale Digs

300 native wetland wildflowers and sedges were relieved of oppressive crowding this past Sunday by Native Plant Workshop volunteers. Each of the plants--rose mallow, swamp milkweed, cutleaf coneflower, woolgrass and the infamously named Purple Headed Sneezeweed (it has yellow flowers and doesn't make you sneeze)--now has its own root space to grow through the summer. They'll be camping out in these containers, protected from squirrels by hardware cloth, until they can fill vacancies this fall in local wetlands and floodplains such as at Mountain Lakes Preserve. The plants were grown from locally collected seed, as a way of preserving whatever might be special about the local genotypes. Thanks to Valerie and Lynne for their help.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Deciding What To Pull

It's June, and all the cool season weeds have grown up to obscure what you were really hoping to grow. Knowing what to pull requires knowing what the undesired plants look like in all stages of development, and often without flowers to go by. Here's an example: What to pull in the picture to the left? Nightshade (poisonous), which will have a purple flower later on, is at the top. Those small groupings of three leaflets are wood sorrel, whose leaf has a nice acidic taste. You'll probably want to pull or mulch all of those, leaving the deeply lobed plant at the bottom of the photo. That's mayapple.


The second photo is mayapple without any weeds around. If you don't mind a woodsy appearance, you can just leave the leaves on the ground and let the mayapple push up through them. Weed seeds won't be able to sprout through a thick enough layer of leaves.







Here's another mini-riot of weeds obscuring one native wildflower. Wood sorrel, which produces a small yellow flower that turns into erect seed capsules, is mixed this time with Japanese Stiltgrass (an annual grass that can survive mowing or grow 2-5 feet tall in flowerbeds; the leaf is reminiscent of bamboo). In the upper middle of the photo is one native monkeyflower, which sprouted from a parent plant nearby and will have tubular blue flowers later on. That's the keeper, though the hundreds I've seen sprout in the garden suggest that in another year or two, the native and ornamental monkeyflower may prove to be too much of a good thing.


Most people know white clover--a worldwide weed. It fixes nitrogen from the air, and provides nectar for honeybees, but it can spread into flowerbeds and clutter them up. Its leaf looks alot like wood sorrel, but is a bluer green.

Workshop On Weeds

Our June Native Plant Workshop (actually Sunday, July 1, 2pm, meeting at Whole Earth Center on Nassau Street) is devoted to figuring out what to pull out of the less than perfectly ordered garden most of us are faced with this time of year. The usual definition of a weed is a plant out of place. For the purposes of the workshop, I'm defining a weed as "any plant you get tired of seeing pop up everywhere."

This can, and often does, include plants you liked when you first noticed them.

Take for instance this delicious looking strawberry (1st photo), which turns out to be neither delicious nor a strawberry. It's Indian Mock-Strawberry, originally from India, which either spreads into your lawn from the flowerbed or vice versa.


In this second photo, which includes small leaves of wood sorrel and common plantain in the background, is another plant you may like at first but quickly get tired of. Most people know it by the flowering stalk it forms in its second year--white flowers in April that form seeds before the plant turns into a less than pretty brown skeleton in June. That's when most people decide it needs to come out, but by then it's already spreading thousands of seeds to insure its continued presence in your garden.

A few years' worth of wisdom may lead you to pull it out or mulch it over in its first year of growth, when it forms a low rosette of large, yellowish-green heart-shaped leaves, like the one in the photo.

One of the many benefits of gardening is that it trains your eye to make distinctions where others just see masses of green.



With some experience, you'll be able to distinguish garlic mustard from violet (photo)--glossier and less ragged

















and Siberian Bugloss, which has blue flowers reminiscent of Forget Me Nots in the spring. None of these, by the way, with the possible exception of the violet, are native.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Homemade Deer Repellent

A participant in our Native Plant Workshops offered this recipe for protecting plants from deer:

1 quart water
1 egg white (powder is fine)
2 tsp of very hot pepper (cayenne, hungarian)
1 tsp of cinnamon

Shake well and spray. Try it and let us know how it works.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being in May

April showers act as a bleaching agent in nature, turning nearly all May flowers quite white. The following, photographed along the driveway leading to the Mountain Lakes House, bear witness to this clean scene:

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) -- I take the species name of this native tree, "florida", not to mean it's from Florida, but that it is florid, which is to say highly ornate. Florida has lost much of its floridity, but there are still lots of florid Dogwoods in the understory at Mountain Lakes Preserve, and their berries help sustain migrating birds in the fall.


Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) -- This native shrub gets almost as big as flowering dogwoods, and has similar bark (see winter posting on bark). Their flowers advertise their locations in the woods this time of year. I've never seen pollinators visiting them, though somehow they end up with black berries later on. "Haw" refers to their similarity in form to hawthorns.











Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica), another native, are still blooming from last month, to show solidarity with May's batch of white flowers. Sometimes they develop a radical streak and show a bit of pink.
















Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) -- See previous posting. An exotic weed of backyards and preserves. Try your best to develop a reflexive urge to pull this plant, since it conducts underground chemical warfare on native plant species, and is going to give your garden a distressed look when it turns brown a month from now.
















Bush Honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) is another exotic that tends to invade nature preserves and pop up in backyards uninvited. Flowers are very fragrant.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Garlic Mustard Pulling


The annual canal cleanup along the towpath in Princeton on May 5 will include pulling invasive species along with picking up trash (more information on the cleanup below).

This is prime time for pulling up garlic mustard, an exotic biennial herb that has spread across the north and eastern U.S., displacing native species. Look most anywhere in Princeton this time of year and you're likely to see its dark green clumps rising from the ground. Its tendency to take over is abetted by its release of toxins through the roots that kill mychorrhizal fungi in the ground. Many plants, particularly trees, have symbiotic relationships with fungi, which help the plant absorb nutrients from the soil. Many species in the mustard family don't need these fungi, so gain a competitive advantage by killing them.


Garlic mustard grows as a low rosette the first year, then sends up a flowerstalk its second year before dying in mid-summer. Gardeners usually don't notice it until it blooms, and then think the bloom decent enough to leave it in. Only when the flowering stalk turns brown in mid-summer do people decide it's a nuisance, and by then the seedpods are ripe enough to burst when you pull it out.

It's easiest to identify and pull when in flower, but because some viable seed may already be present in the flowers, stuff it into a trash bag and put it out with the garbage, rather than composting or leaving it to lie on the ground.

More info on the cleanup is below:

Friends of Princeton Open Space and Princeton Water Watch are co-sponsoring a cleanup of the D&R canal in the Princeton area this Saturday May 5, 2007, 10 am - early afternoon Turning Basin Park, Alexander Rd at the canal near Princeton, NJ, rain or shine.

We'll assemble at 10 am to coordinate our efforts, and then celebrate our results with a picnic from 1-2 pm, right after the cleanup. And at 1:30, Mercer Co. Wildlife Rehabilitation will bring some of their animals to teach us about the impact of pollution on wildlife.

We'll remove debris and invasive plants along the canal from Port Mercer
(Quaker Bridge Rd.) to Harrison Street. Sponsors will provide garbage
bags, disposable gloves, some grasping tools and some canoes and kayaks.
Additional canoes may be rented from the Princeton Canoe Rental facility
nearby, and others may walk alongside the boats. Please bring
weather-appropriate gear, especially waterproof items. Boots or shoes
(with socks!) ready for mud. Rain gear if it looks like rain. Layered
clothing for adjusting to temperature.

Volunteers needed...Meet great people! Enjoy the outdoors, and serve
your community. It would be helpful, if you can join us, to let us know
in advance:

Pat Palmer (FOPOS) or Lexi Gelperin (PWW--Princeton Water Watch)
Phone: 609-279-6992 and 609-915-5921

Friday, April 27, 2007

Noted Speaker and Nature Walk, Sunday, April 29

Leslie Sauer, a pioneer in the field of restoring and managing native landscapes, and author of the book The Once and Future Forest, will speak at the annual meeting this Sunday of Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS). The title of her talk is Nurturing Nature in the Modern WorldLandscape Management and Preservation.
Prior to her talk will be a 20 minute meeting in which you can find out more about what FOPOS has been up to over the past year. Afterwards, there will be refreshments, then I'll lead a walk through Mountain Lakes, hopefully including a visit to the newly acquired grasslands of Tusculum, which FOPOS played a vital role in preserving.
Ms. Sauer's talk is particularly relevant to Princeton, as FOPOS begins to take an active role in the stewardship of lands it has helped to preserve. Restoration efforts have been gaining momentum this year. FOPOS was awarded a $9000 government grant to restore 4 acres at Mountain Lakes; FOPOS is sponsoring monthly free native plant workshops at the Whole Earth Center; mowing at Princeton's share of the D&R Canal State Park has been changed to allow native wildflowers to bloom all summer long; Princeton High School is converting its new detention basin into a wetland for nature study; and we have started a nursery at Mountain Lakes greenhouse to propagate native wildflowers that have thus far been surviving only in isolated locations around Princeton.
The talk will be at Mountain Lakes House. Parking is at the end of the long driveway heading into the woods at 57 Mountain Avenue. RSVPs at 921-2772 are appreciated. Check out the blooms of Spring Beauty as you come down the driveway.

Trout Lily and Spring Beauty


There are two kinds of common native wildflowers blooming this time of year at Mountain Lakes Preserve. Trout Lily is found mostly north of the lakes. It's leaves are spotted like trout.













Spring Beauty lines the main driveway.

Earthday at Whole Earth Center

Both the Whole Earth Center and Earthday turned 36 this past Sunday. I spent the glorious afternoon on the patio at the Center, talking to people about native plants and Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve, and giving away "live stakes" of several native shrub species, along with some locally collected wildflower seeds. The live stakes went well with the live music, consisting of jazz guitar and a female vocalist named Jeanie Bryson, who is also an avid gardener.
Many people signed up to receive more information about a sale of native wildflowers coming up next month here in Princeton. If you want to put in an order, email this blog.
Live stakes, by the way, are by far the easiest way to propagate three local native shrubs--elderberry, silky dogwood and buttonbush. Simply cut 2 foot sections of the stem before it buds out in the spring, then push the stick in the ground or in a vase half-filled with water. Roots emerge from the lower half, leaves from the top.

Pretty, but......



Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria),
is rapidly spreading into Mountain Lakes from its upstream stronghold at Pettoranello Gardens. Though attractive, its aggressive growth habit is ecologically destructive, as it quickly excludes other spring ephemerals.






The end result is a seamless carpet of this exotic species, offering none of the diversity needed to sustain wildlife. Lesser Celandine is sometimes confused with Marsh Marigold, a native that, like many natives, is rarely seen. In a month or two, the Lesser Celandine will disappear back into the ground, remaining dormant until the following spring.