Plants and Animals
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Plants
The Scour Bar Wet Meadow consists of dense vegetation that's 3 to 6 feet tall by late summer. You won't see any mature trees, except for perhaps some overhanging American sycamore, green ash, or silver maple rooted in a neighboring natural community.
Canopy Trees
The trees whose crowns intercept most of the sunlight in a forest stand. The uppermost layer of a forest.
This natural community has no canopy trees.
Understory Trees
Small trees and young specimens of large trees growing beneath the canopy trees. Also called the subcanopy.
This natural community has no understory trees.
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.
This natural community typically has no shrubs, saplings, or vines.
Low Plants (Field Layer)
Plants growing low to the ground. This includes small shrubs and tree seedlings.
- blue mistflower
- Canadian germander
- curlytop knotweed
- dotted smartweed
- eastern black nightshade
- halberd-leaf rosemallow
- late-flowering thoroughwort
- Pennsylvania smartweed
- swamp vervain
- white vervain
- common boneset (occasional)
- eyebane sandmat (occasional)
- giant goldenrod (occasional)
- grassleaf mud-plantain (occasional)
- green bulrush (occasional)
- lace grass (occasional)
- spotted St. John’s-wort (occasional)
- waxyleaf meadowrue (occasional)
- white-flower leafcup (occasional)
- wildrye (occasional)
Non-Native Invasive Plant Species
Floodwaters bring in seeds and plant parts from a variety of non-native invasive plants such as jimsonweed* and spiny pigweed*. Check out the Ecological Threats page for more.