Succession of an abandoned meadow in Saugerties, New York

This is a fairly typical abandoned meadow on the edge of the Catskills with poor stony soils. I have simply identified the plants that are taking over the fields and the farm buildings area. Milkweed, wrinkle-leaved goldenrod, Japanese barberry, mugwort, deer tongue, Japanese knotweed, wild carrot, black swallow-wort, great mullein, sensitive fern, spotted knapweed, St. John's wort, Deptford pink, hedge bedstraw are what I have identified so far. I hope I am right. I am entirely new to this. Though a scientist, the atmosphere, ocean and climate are my domain, not the living world! However, I have been thinking that people like to identify the rare and striking plants but often do not know the common plants (call them weeds if you want) that are everywhere around us and often quite unimpressive. I read Richard Mabey's book Weeds and decided to observe and identify these common, humble, unassuming and often unwanted plants. Because of the pandemic and the shutdown of life in NYC we decided to spend July in the Catskills and the abandoned meadows are just a mile away from our cabin. I identified for all of July. Some of the plants became identifiable only in the later days as they flowered. It's notable how many of the plants, maybe most, are not indigenous to North American but have been introduced from Europe and Asia. There is a road that crosses the meadow and like all the roads here it is lined with chicory and its beautiful blue flowers, but only to one meter or some from the road. I wonder why chicory does this?

Posted on July 13, 2020 02:19 AM by rseager