Taconic-Hereford State MUA
Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, NY
909 acres

Directions:

North on the Taconic State Parkway; exit at the park entrance just north of Rossway/Drake Road. There is no marked access from the south bound lane of the Taconic.

Geology:

The soil is sandy. Near the hemlock ravine is slate bedrock. Pine Brook runs though the ravine.

History:

The term Taconic is an Delaware Indian word for "cold river."

Trails:

Imagine a time clock. You start the walk at the parking lot at 10 o'clock position. You can then make a clockwise circular walk from and back to the parking lot. To make the walk longer you can take a side walk at the 5 o'clock position. This takes you into and out of a hemlock ravine that is privately owned by the next-door Rockefeller University Field Research Center.

Also here is the Innisfree Garden.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Amelanchier arborea (shadbush)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya glabra (pignut hickory)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Nyssa sylvatica (tupelo)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Picea abies (Norway spruce) planted
Pinus rigida (pitch pine)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Prunus sp. (cherry)
Pyrus malus (apple tree)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus prinus (chestnut oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Cephalanthus occidentalis (buttonbush)
Chimaphila maculata (spotted wintergreen)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Decodon verticillata (swamp loosestrife)
Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) 11/08/01 waning
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honey suckle)
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Rhamnus cathartica (common buckthorn)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Vaccinium sp. (lowbush blueberry)
Viburnum acerifolium (maple-leaf viburnum)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Chimaphila maculata (spotted wintergreen)
Cypripedium acaule (pink lady's slipper)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Eupatorium rugosum (white snakeroot)
Euthamia graminifolia (grass-leaved goldenrod)
Galium sp. (bedstraw)
Geum canadense (white avens)
Goodyera pubescens (downy rattlesnake plantain)
Leonurus cardiaca (motherwort)
Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe)
Polygonum cespitosum (cespitose smartweed)
Potentilla recta (rough-fruited cinquefoil)
Pyrola elliptica (shinleaf)
Solidago bicolor (silverrod)
Solidago caesia (blue-stemmed goldenrod)
Solidago canadensis var. canadensis (Canada goldenrod)
Solidago spp. (goldenrods)
Typha latifolia (broad-leaved cattail)
Verbascum thapsus (common mullein)
Verbena urticifolia (white vervain)
Veronica officinalis (common speedwell)

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)

Ferns:
Dryopteris marginalis (marginal woodfern)
Polypodium sp. (rock cap fern)

Other:
Sphagnum sp. (sphagnum moss)