May 6th was yet another beautiful day in the Park! The Ivy League's routine workday on the first Saturday of the month coincided with the Park's annual plant sale, which I believe has been running for 24 years. It was my first time experiencing the plant sale, so I spent a good deal of the morning looking around and shopping for some plants. Portions of proceeds from all vendors go to the Park, and there sure did seem to be a lot of purchasing going on!
After I dropped about $100 on native plants, I left the hustle and bustle of the pop-up plant market behind to head down into the restoration area. It was a solo effort for the Ivy League today, so I continued to chip away at the Ivy patch that has occupied our time for the past few weeks. It was very encouraging to see plenty of fresh growth from native groundcover in areas that were very recently dominated by English Ivy.
Hexastylis arifolia
Sarsparilla Vine: Smilax pumila
These natives will provide far superior habitat and food resources for native wildlife than a monoculture of English Ivy would.
I also looked into the alien looking galls that many of the Horsesugar shrubs seem to host. I was originally mistaken in my assumption that these were wasp galls. It turns out they they are caused by a fungus called Exobasidium symploci.
One last note on the wetlands. Beavers have dammed up the upper wetlands very close to the springhead. As a result, the wetland margins are inundated, and lots of plants are wilting and dying as a result. This effect is doing a number on the exotics that have established in this ecotone, and our efforts will further put a dent in their infestations.
Wetlands are dynamic places, and this change is fuel for flora in the park. Jack-in-the-Pulpits seem to be relishing in the higher water table.
Arisaema tryphyllum
That's it for this week's installation! I look forward to our May 20th workday and hope to see some PKP stewards out there!
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