North Park Wetland Tour, May 28, 2024

 Although it was a rainy evening, we had a nice group for our tour of the Wetlands in North Park. Our guide was Leah Fulton a Naturalist with the Latodomi Nature Center who is a very knowledgeable and personable speaker.  If you haven't been to the Wetland Area in North Park before then, it would be a wonderful place to visit anytime of the year as you will see something different in every season.

Here are some of the plants and trees that our tour guide pointed out as we strolled along the water and man-made boardwalk.

• Ninebark tree - can be propagated easily by sticking a piece of it in the ground 

• Elderberry bush - loved by birds and thrives in moist area 
• Wingstem - host to checkered butterfly 

• Swamp white oak - has leaves with rounded edges; Red oaks have spiky edge leaves

• Honeysuckle is invasive; plant Coral honeysuckle which is a native variety 

• Redbud tree - beautiful heart shaped leaves

• Common Milkweed - the Monarch butterfly lays eggs on the plant and the caterpillar consumes the milky toxic sap from the plant; this deters predators from eating the insects; Leah suggests that we don't plant tropical milkweed because it confuses Monarchs to delay migrating to Mexico; they might not make it to their destination before the weather changes 

• Barberry - invasive plant which is known to takeover the understory of a forest; it's illegal to sell

• Snails - we were cautioned not to step on them as we walked along the boardwalk 

• Cattails - an obligatory plant for a wetland; each plant has 2 “hotdogs”; Lower one is female and upper hotdog is male
• Common reeds are currently taking over wetlands 

• Multiflora rose - invasive and pushes out native plants 

• Beaver dam - although we didn't see any beavers, our tour guide assured us that there is a healthy population of beavers
• Black Willow - loves moist soil and great for erosion control; native to North America 

 

A clap of thunder ended our tour of the Wetlands in North Park. We were just about at the end of the walkway. We almost made it back to the ice skating rink parking lot when the rain began to pour in buckets. Appropriate weather for touring the Wetlands!

 

Notes by Colleen Fingal, pictures by RoseMary Highman

Wingstem

The rain began lightly, then the thunder & deluge made us run for cover.