Plants and Animals
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Plants
The Riverbar Tall Wet Meadow floods only occasionally, not annually. This provides the relatively stable environment needed by perennials, which are grasses and flowers that live for more than a season or two. You’ll see a diverse array of tall perennial grasses and wildflowers, most of which bloom in summer or fall. You won’t see any mature trees, except for perhaps some overhanging American sycamore, green ash, or box-elder growing in the floodplain beside this natural community.
Canopy Trees
The trees whose crowns intercept most of the sunlight in a forest stand. The uppermost layer of a forest.
Understory Trees
Small trees and young specimens of large trees growing beneath the canopy trees. Also called the subcanopy.
Shrubs, Saplings, and Vines
Shrubs, juvenile trees and vines at the right height to give birds and others a perch up off the ground but below the trees.
- groundnut (occasional)
- hedge fast bindweed (occasional)
Low Plants (Field Layer)
Plants growing low to the ground. This includes small shrubs and tree seedlings.
- giant goldenrod
- riverbank wildrye
- wingstem
- bear's-foot (occasional)
- bladder campion (occasional)
- Canadian germander (occasional)
- Canadian wildrye (occasional)
- carpenter’s-square (occasional)
- common boneset (occasional)
- common milkweed (occasional)
- cutleaf coneflower (occasional)
- deertongue (occasional)
- eastern gamagrass (occasional)
- great blue lobelia (occasional)
- spotted St. John’s-wort (occasional)
- thinleaf sunflower (occasional)
- trumpetweed (occasional)
- white vervain (occasional)
Non-Native Invasive Plant Species
This community is susceptible to infiltration by non-native invasive plants such as Japanese hop* that hitch a ride on the river from locations upstream. See the Ecological Threats page for more.
Animals
Even though natural communities aren’t named after animals, animals do play a crucial role in maintaining natural communities. Plants and animals need each other. To name just a few examples, plants provide food and habitat for animals, and animals help plants reproduce by spreading pollen and seeds. To learn more, see The Role of Animals in Natural Communities in Ecology Basics.
Check out iNaturalist to see photos of animals (and plants!) that people have seen in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.