Fresh Pond Trees

• List of Trees at Fresh Pond Reservation (by Common Name)
• List of Shrubs at Fresh Pond Reservation (by Botanical Name)
• List of Plantings (Including but not limited to trees) near the Water Dept. Building, Kingsley Park, and Weir Meadow)

Fresh Pond Wildflowers

Lusitania Meadow Wildflowers

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

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

Some Fall Seeds and Seedpods of Fresh Pond

Rough Cockleburr    Devil’s beggar-ticks

Map of Trees by Species  in Cambridge

Link to List of Trees in Cambridge, Massachusetts (List Provided by Department of Public Works/City Arborist)

Cambridge GIS Department Map Identifying Trees

Fragrant Houseplants

List of fragrant houseplants on Gardenweb