Image gallery loading....
How to Recognize It
 | Open Park Map |
 | Compare Natural Communities |
The Rich Floodplain Forest is a lush natural community that can be found in the park on slightly elevated floodplains alongside the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers and their larger tributaries. Infrequent floods bring in nutrient-rich sediments that support a diverse array of plants. You’ll find flood-tolerant trees like American sycamore, tuliptree, and black walnut. In the spring, wildflowers carpet the ground. Look for evidence of past floods, such as clumps of leaf litter and dead twigs caught in the branches of northern spicebush shrubs.
Can you find this combination of key features?
Identifying This Natural Community
- Diverse trees including American sycamore, tuliptree, black walnut, green ash, and American elm
- Abundant northern spicebush, box-elder, and pawpaw (large shrubs and small trees)
- Vines such as Virginia creeper, trumpet creeper, and eastern poison-ivy climbing the largest trees
- A forest floor lush with wildflowers such as Virginia bluebells in spring
- Evidence of flooding: piles of debris left behind by floodwaters, scars on the upstream sides of trees
- Sandy soil
- Location: on a slightly elevated river floodplain (possibly set back a short distance from the river, where flooding is less frequent)
If so, welcome to the Rich Floodplain Forest at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
Not sure? Check out the Compare Natural Communities Tool.