Fresh Pond Trees

Birch Catkins, early March, Kingsley Park, Fresh Pond Reservation. Photo by Julie Croston.

Fresh Pond Wildflowers

List of Wildflowers at Fresh Pond Reservation: Page 1 and Page 2
List of Native Flowers, Trees, Sedges, Shrubs and Ferns at the Woodland Restoration Project Area (aka “The Corner,” “Susannah’s Corner,” and “the habitat”)
Moth and Butterfly Host Plants at Fresh Pond, by Julie Croston

Lusitania Meadow Wildflowers

(Provided by Ranger to Children’s House, Tobin Montessori School, Classrooms)

6/3/13

Lupine (and other pea family blossoms) botanical illustration

Normally we don’t pick living things at Fresh Pond. We teach the children what applies to all visitors to the reservation—interference with the habitat, including picking and harvesting of any kind, is disallowed.

: Did you know that Tobin Friends of Fresh Pond Afterschool Club simplified the “Leave No Trace” Principles for use by children at Fresh Pond?

However, there are very occasional exceptions made with the permission of the ranger or the ecology center director. One is that any items (not living) collected can be used in classrooms if they are returned to the reservation by the children that day, or on a subsequent trip. This includes pond water from Black’s Nook examined in the ecology center—it must be returned.

A few items can very occasionally be selectively sampled–again, only with the explicit consent of the aforementioned authorities .

Invasive plants are their own category—they are regularly “harvested” by a gang of volunteers (more on this here).

With that strong caveat, here is a list of the meadow plants that were shared with Children’s House after being used by the Art & Science in One program in June, 2013:

Curly dock (green, tiny flowers)
Prickly lettuce (underside of leaves have prickles; no flowers)
Anemone (white petals, with yellow centers)
Buttercup
Sweet William (these are deep red; comes in other colors, though)
Red clover (flower is not actually red, but purple)
Tansy (without flowers) -smell stems and leaves, though!
Yarrow (white tiny flowers, finely serrated, narrow leaves)
Grasses (several kinds; mostly gone to seed)
Birdsfoot trefoil (yellow flower looks like “butter and eggs” flower or like tiny snapdragons)
Yellow unknown flower, with red (gone-to-seed) heads
Golden Alexander (yellow flowers, with umbrels)
Oxeye daisy
Bouncing Bet
Crown Vetch
Larch tree branch
Sugar Maple twigs with leaves and samaras
White Campion