New York Flora Association Blog

The New York Natural Heritage Program is assessing 20 different open wetlands in the Upper Hudson watershed this year as part of a project for the Division of Water in the DEC.  The assessment includes data on species and their percent cover in an 80 meter diameter circle as well as in four 10×10 plots. Additional data on landscape quality surrounding the plots adds to the assessment.  On July 24th Greg Edinger and I assessed a medium fen at Thousand Acre Swamp near Fox Hill in Saratoga County. The sedge-dominated fen was in excellent condition and we couldn’t have been there on a more beautiful day. It takes about 4 hours to do the full assessment. – Steve Young

Another common sedge on the periphery of the plot was Carex folliculata, one of the most beautiful members of the Carex genus in my opinion.

Here is a closeup of the spikelets with the long perigynia.

One of the most common wildflowers in the plots was narrow-leaved gentian, Gentiana linearis.

This is a view across the wetland to the northwest. To the west it turned into a shrub swamp dominated by northern meadowsweet and sweet gale.

Both Spiraea species were here. This is the pink inflorescence of Spiraea tomentosa, hardhack spiraea.

This entry was posted on July 29, 2012 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Field Trips. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.