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Native Flora Garden
With more than two acres divided into eight geographical zones, this wildflower garden exhibits native plants growing in the New York Metropolitan Area, a region known for its natural diversity.
Entrance to the Native Flora Garden (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
Dating back to 1911, the Native Flora Garden isn't just another wildflower display. In 1931, this wild retreat was ecologically designed to support nine distinct plant communities found within a 100-mile radius of New York City: serpentine rock, dry meadow, kettle pond, bog, pine barrens, wet meadow and stream, deciduous woodland, and limestone ledge, as well as a border mound with several representatives of the region's coniferous forests.
All plants in this garden are appropriate for their particular ecological niches, determined by environmental factors such as topography, geology, soil acidity or alkalinity, moisture, drainage, and light.
The Native Flora Garden complements Brooklyn Botanic Garden's long-standing efforts to research and document the region's plant life. While most of the botanical community focuses on tracking the devastation in the tropics, scientists at BBG are working on the most comprehensive study ever undertaken to identify and catalog the plant biodiversity of the New York Metropolitan Area. The region's rich diversity of natural habitats has been transformed by human settlement in the past 400 years. Understanding the resulting new urban landscape is critical in our rapidly urbanizing world. For more on this important research, including an encyclopedia of all woody plants growing in the area, see Metropolitan Plants.
Serpentine Rock Area
Clematis ochrolueca (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
When you enter the Native Flora Garden, the serpentine rock area is just beyond the gate, to your left. In the New York region, serpentine, a streaked greenish rock, is found primarily on Staten Island, where outcroppings cover some 35 square miles. Other sites occur in Hoboken, New Jersey, along the Cross-Westchester Expressway between White Plains and Rye, and in some western parts of midtown Manhattan.
A high magnesium content gives serpentine rock its greenish tint, but it may range in color from yellowish to dark green or even be reddish in hue when intruded by iron oxide. Although dense in weight, serpentine is soft and crumbly to the touch.
Serpentine habitat is extremely arid, nutrient-poor, and prone to fire. Toxic levels of elements such as chromium in the soil inhibit the growth of many plants. The result is a somewhat stunted forest-and-savannah-like plant community. It's a globally rare habitat, containing several endangered endemic plant species.
Certain species are better adapted than others to serpentine habitat. Of the trees commonly associated with this habitat, staghorn sumac and sassafras are represented in the Native Flora Garden. Pinxterbloom or pink azalea, a shrubby member of the heath family, also found in this section of the garden, is prominent in the serpentine outcroppings on Staten Island.
The regal fronds of cinnamon fern and interrupted fern, both members of the royal fern family, as well as hay-scented fern, are all here as well. Cinnamon fern derives its name from the tall, orange-brown fertile fronds that appear in the spring. The interrupted fern is so named because the leaflets in the center part of each fertile frond ripen and wither in early summer, leaving a space.
In spring, the serpentine rock area is filled with the tiny flowers of moss phlox or moss pink, blue-eyed grass (actually not a grass at all but a member of the iris family), and common wood sorrel. The tall, asterlike yellow clusters of roundleaf ragwort are in bloom from April to June, while the many species of goldenrod flower in late summer or early fall.
Dry Meadow
Verbesina altissma (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
Just inside the entrance to the Native Flora Garden, to the right, is the dry meadow, an open area where herbaceous plants, rather than trees and shrubs, predominate. Meadows are one stage in the succession from cleared land, such as farmland, back to forest.
The thin, somewhat sandy soil of most dry meadows tends to be infertile. However, grasses thrive here, and their persistent and widespread root systems are adapted to withstand alternating conditions of drought and dampness. A variety of flowering plants provide color in the meadow from summer well into the fall. The first to bloom is bee balm, with spidery scarlet pompoms, as well as wild bergamot, similar in appearance but with lavender flowers. Both are members of the mint family, with square stems and tube-shaped flowers.
Next come long spikes of blazing stars, bursting forth with pinkish-purple flowers, and then milkweed and its relative, butterfly weed, which attract bees, beetles, flies, wasps, and butterflies; in fact, the monarch butterfly deposits its eggs on the underside of the leaves on which its larvae eventually feed.
White snakeroot, with its large, heart-shaped leaves and multiple white fuzzy flower heads, flourishes here and in nearby Prospect Park from July through October. It is joined in August by several species of goldenrod and in September by the purple New England and New York asters.
Kettle Pond
Nyssa sylvatica near Kettle Pond (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
Kettle ponds are found most characteristically on Long Island, where such depressions were formed when giant boulders of ice, transported here by glacier during the last ice age, melted. Although they may dry out in winter or during a drought, kettle ponds quickly fill with the first rains and soon are once again teeming with life.
The yellow flowering spikes of golden-club, a member of the arum family rooted in the mud at the bottom of the pond, rise above the water in early May. The broad-leaved arrowhead, named for the shape of its leaves, abounds in the pond and displays its three-petaled white flowers in August.
By late spring, the perimeter of the kettle pond is ringed with clumps of royal and cinnamon fern, and highlighted by the beautiful blooms of the blue flag iris. The orange-speckled jewelweed also thrives here and blooms throughout the summer. The moist conditions are also conducive to the growth of ironweed, with its bright purple flower heads in late summer.
The pond is also flanked by bushes of bayberry and panicled dogwood. Bayberry is well known for its tight clusters of aromatic, wax-covered fruits from which scented candles have been made since colonial days. The dense white flowerheads of the dogwood lend prominence to the shrub in late May and early June.
The ruby-throated hummingbird visits the red cardinal flowers in August, and toward the end of the month appear the creamy white clusters of the turtlehead, a member of the snapdragon family.
Animal life as well as plant life proliferates in the pond. Frogs are common here, and insects such as dragonflies and mosquitos come to lay their eggs in the water. Birds, in turn, are attracted to the area by insect activity and find protection in among the cattails. Once these cattails gain a foothold, especially in shallow water, the dense growth of their stems causes organic debris to collect around the roots. This process may continue until the pond gradually fills in and becomes a marsh, an example of one type of habitat giving rise to another over a period of many years.
Bog
Tiny summer mushrooms (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
Bogs are complex and constantly changing ecosystems. The spongy material underfoot is actually not soil at all but rather an accumulation of plant debris. Due to the acidic, anaerobic conditions of bogs, this organic debris is prevented from fully decomposing, and thus not many nutrients are available. Peat bogs, commonly found in northern latitudes, are formed by the accumulation of considerable amounts of such organic matter.
Sphagnum moss forms a conspicuous carpeting of lime green or reddish mounds in many eastern bogs. In bodies of shallow running water, sphagnum forms soft, quaking mats on which other species thrive. As it is relatively pathogen-free and also able to absorb 15 to 20 times its weight in water, sphagnum is highly regarded by gardeners for plant propagation and as a soil amendment, though it's considered by most environmentalists to be a nonrenewable resource.
Many shrubs of the acid-loving heath family also grow in bogs, including the leatherleaf, bog laurel, pink bog andromeda, and sheep laurel, all late-spring-blooming plants. Associated with the roots of these plants are fungi, which obtain nutrients from the growing medium and make them available to the plants. In turn, the fungi obtain sugars and other carbohydrates from the plants for their own growth. This constitutes a form of symbiosis in which two different organisms live together and benefit from the relationship.
However, conditions in the bog do not always lead to peaceful coexistence. Perhaps the most unusual plants growing here are those termed insectivorous. In adapting to living in a nutrient-poor environment, these plants are equipped with a variety of means with which to entrap and digest insects, thus supplementing their diets. Pitcher plants, as well as roundleaf and threadleaf sundews, are examples of insectivorous plants found in the Native Flora Garden.
Other bog plants include the sweet pepperbush and the cranberry, an important economic crop. The familiar red cranberries are harvested in October and November by flooding the cultivated stands (cranberry bogs) and skimming the fruits after these have been beaten off the trailing stems.
In the constantly changing life of the bog, the deposition of many layers of peat eventually leads to a firmer substratum in which trees and shrubs can gain a foothold. Trees in the Native Flora Garden commonly associated with bogs are the sweet bay magnolia, black spruce, larch or tamarack (one of the few deciduous conifers), and white cedar.
The bog along with the adjacent pine barrens form an integrated ecological system.
Pine Barren
Epigea repens (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
Three pine barrens are found in the Northeast: on Cape Cod, on Long Island, and in southern New Jersey. The latter is the largest, covering more than one million acres.
Pine barren soil is shallow, sandy, poor in nutrients, and relatively acidic. In the New Jersey pine barrens, an extensive underground water supply, or aquifer, of fresh water allows for the survival of a host of specially adapted plants.
Blueberries and huckleberries are two of the many edible plants found here. Selected varieties of the former are cultivated in large stands and are an important cash crop for the region. Where they grow wild, however, these berry bushes form an almost impenetrable thicket, providing protection for the wildlife within.
A distinct feature of pine barrens are the many low-growing plants such as trailing arbutus, which opens its tiny, fragrant white or pink flowers in April. It is followed by the bell-shaped clusters of the bearberry in June. Golden heather, a shrubby plant with scalelike leaves, brightens the area with low mounds of solid yellow throughout the spring. And the delicate bird's-foot violet appears here as well as in other areas of the Native Flora Garden in May. Even the prickly pear cactus grows well in restricted areas of this sandy soil, its showy yellow flowers blooming from June to August.
Another plant that thrives in sandy coastal soil is the tall, waxy-leaved American holly, with its familiar red berries. Standing in the middle of the pine barrens area, it is one of the few nonconiferous trees that keeps its leaves all winter long.
Most of the trees native to the pine barrens are well adapted to the periodic fires that commonly occur there. These fires actually help to rejuvenate the forest, clearing the land of accumulated organic debris and stimulating new growth. The trees most suited to this unusual environment are pitch pine, scrub oak, and blackjack oak, which in some areas grow to no more than four or five feet tall, forming an entire pygmy forest.
In the case of the pitch pine, even when all the foliage has been seared off, new needles will grow from buds present throughout the trunk and branches, which are protected by a thick bark. If the entire trunk is killed, the tree will sprout anew from the charred stump. Fire also causes the cones of the pitch pine to open, releasing seeds for the growth of new plants as well as food for birds and other animals.
Wet Meadow and Stream
Hibiscus mocheutos (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
Just beyond the bog and directly across from the pine barren is a third moist area, the wet meadow. Sedges, grasses, and rushes in particular thrive here. Damp meadows, with their abundant plant life, are often artificially maintained by farmers as pastureland for their animals.
Wet meadow plants may also grow along the course of a stream, or where seepage water accumulates at the bottom of a hill or along a wet ditch. In the Native Flora Garden, the wet meadow is fed by a slow-flowing stream that originates in the border mound behind it.
As early as late February, the greenish-brown-speckled hoods surrounding the flowers of the skunk cabbage appear, often pushing through the snow. This plant, found here along the shallows of the stream bed, is so graphically named because of the disagreeable odor emitted when its leaves are crushed.
The fertile soil of the wet meadow, enriched by organic matter and silt carried by the stream, is a suitable home for many herbaceous plants. The yellow marsh marigold, a member of the buttercup family with glossy, kidney-shaped leaves, is a bright harbinger of spring in late April. Many other plants bloom in summer or early fall in the wet meadow. One of the most unusual is the lizard's-tail or water dragon, with its hundreds of tiny, greenish white blossoms crowded along a curved "tail" that nods at the tip.
Another summer bloomer is the orange-and-brown-speckled Turk's-cap lily, with reflexed petals revealing a green star in the center of the flower. From this center extend prominent brown stamens, the pollen-filled male organs of the plant.
The large pink swamp rose mallow, a native hibiscus growing five to seven feet tall, thrives in August, as does the great lobelia. More welcome color is added by two members of the gentian family, both with clear blue to violet, vaselike flowers. The flowers of the closed gentian are sealed shut and are self-pollinating, while those of the soapwort gentian are somewhat paler in color and open slightly.
The serviceberry or shadblow, a many-trunked tree with characteristic twisted form, is at home in the wet meadow and other swamp areas.
Several wetland plants described in the kettle pond section grow here, too. Among them are the turtlehead (both purple and white), cardinal flower, and jewelweed. This last plant is also called touch-me-not, referring to the fact that when ripe, its seeds will shoot out at the slightest touch.
Deciduous Woodland
Podophyllum peltatum drift (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
Deciduous forest is the defining terrestrial plant community of the Northeast. It is dominated by hardwood trees such as oaks, maples, hickories, walnuts, and beeches. In the woodland section of the Native Flora Garden, the predominant species include red maples; American beeches, with their gray, elephant-hide-like trunks; red, pin, and black oaks; and sweet gum, planted in 1912 by the eminent Dutch botanist Hugo deVries.
Two very attractive species in this section are the paper birch, its white bark peeling off in sheets, and the flowering dogwood, which fills the woods with white blossoms in early spring. Another distinctive native tree is the sassafras, with its one-, two-, or three-lobed leaves that resemble mittens. Its roots and bark lend a distinctive flavor to sassafras tea.
Below the trees is an open understory of shrubs. Those represented here include the rhododendron, mountain laurel, and several species of viburnum, all of which bloom in late spring.
Before the trees have leafed out, the woodland floor is covered with herbaceous wildflowers such as purple and white trilliums, violets, and Virginia bluebells. By blooming early, these plants take advantage of the open canopy, when sunlight penetrates the leafless trees.
However, the rich woodland soil sustains wildflowers throughout the late spring and summer as well. Bleeding-hearts nod on their slender stalks from late April through August. May brings the white, waxy flowers of the Mayapple, a prominent plant with its large, umbrella-like leaves, as well as Solomon's-seal, with its arching stem and pairs of white flowers dangling from the leaf axils. False Solomon's-seal, a similar looking plant but with white starry flowers clustered at the stem tip, can be seen from May to July in the dappled shade.
Over the last century, deciduous forests have been returning to land in the eastern United States that was once used for farming or grazing. As farmlands are abandoned, a process known as succession takes place.
The first plants to appear are tough annual weeds such as ragweed. These plants, with their rapidly spreading root systems and plentiful seeds, can successfully take hold on an exposed, often dry, abandoned field. However, the annual weeds will soon give way to aggressive biennials and perennials such as goldenrods, asters, pokeweed, and milkweed.
Gradually, shrubs and trees establish themselves, their seeds having been carried in by the wind or animals. Competition for space ensues. Conifers, such as hemlocks, junipers, and pines, are often the first to appear, but their seedlings do not tolerate the shade produced by more aggressive deciduous species such as oaks, maples, hickories, walnuts, and beech.
These hardwoods, once established, constitute the climax growth— stable, self-perpetuating community of plants that is interrupted on occasion by fire, flooding, or storms, starting the process of succession anew.
Limestone Ledge
Trillium erectum aka Stinking Benjamin (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
More common than serpentine rock, limestone outcroppings appear across the Ramapo Mountains of northeastern New Jersey, throughout the Catskills of southern New York State, and into the Berkshire Mountains of western Connecticut and Massachusetts. Limestone areas are composed of sedimentary rock, chiefly the mineral calcite, and are as alkaline as peat bogs are acidic.
Plants in these areas are adapted to the highly alkaline (high pH) conditions. Butternut, bladdernut, angelica tree, and slippery elm are typical of the trees found in limestone areas. The bladdernut is featured prominently along the upper ridge of the semicircular limestone ledge in the Native Flora Garden.
And there are many flowering plants as well, including wild ginger, wild geranium, and sweet wild violet, all of which thrive in the rich woodland soil at the base of the ledge.
Walking fern and bulblet fern can be found in the moist, shady cracks and crevices of this calcareous rock. Sensitive fern covers the floor below the ledge. Lichens and mosses adapt well to the damp, cold surfaces, and wall rue, a delicate evergreen fern, is often wedged in the thin cracks where it is readily revived by the first rains after appearing to be quite dead.
On the more exposed soil along the rocky slope appear three-petaled trilliums and wild columbine, with its intricate five-pronged, bright scarlet and yellow flowers.
Border Mound
Conifer section of the Border Mound area (photo by Uli Lorimer, courtesy of BBG).
On the border mound, coniferous trees are grouped to represent stands that would ordinarily be found in the forests of a northern or mountainous region. First come the Canadian hemlocks, then further down the path around the border mound are a group of junipers (eastern red cedars) and eastern white pines.
The conifers in this area are evergreens and do not shed all their leaves (in this case, needles) in the winter. The leaves that do fall form a compact mat that is acidic and thus discourages any dense growth of plants in the understory of a coniferous forest.
The many species of native evergreens represented in the Native Flora Garden are not only some of the most beautiful trees but also the most useful. The commonest conifer of the Northeast, the eastern white pine, has been used since colonial times to construct everything from ship masts to barns, furniture, and matchsticks. By 1900 most of the virgin stands of white pine in this country had been cut for use, but concerted reforestation of this tree is taking place throughout the Northeast.
Early-spring-flowering plants in this section include the spicebush, serviceberry, and dogwood. An assortment of native wildflowers also make a colorful summer display. The large, ungainly pokeweed puts forth its bounty of deep purple berries on reddish stems from late summer into fall, while the common witch-hazel seems to have confused the seasons and only begins blooming in late October.
But the border mound serves for more than additional planting space and a vantage point from which to view the Native Flora Garden. The famed landscape designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvin Vaux, with great foresight, planned for border mounds in both Central and Prospect Parks to block out the noise from surrounding busy thoroughfares. In Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the border mound along Flatbush Avenue, complementing the one across the street in Prospect Park, performs this function too, enhancing the serenity of the Garden.
Descending the border mound path at the end, you find a multitrunked river birch, then, as the path veers to the left, a magnificent cucumber magnolia and an eastern hop hornbeam, with scaly, reddish bark.
Historic Image Collection
View historic photographs of the Native Flora Garden from the Historic Image Collection.
Winter Hours
The Native Flora Garden is closed for Winter.
Map of the Garden
The Native Flora Garden is indicated by the orange box. Click on the map to visit other locations in the Garden, or click here to view a larger map.
