Laddins Rock Sanctuary
High Meadow Road, Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut

Directions:

US 1 to Laddins Rock Road (at Greenwich/Stamford border). Take Laddins Rock Road  a short distance to a left turn onto Midbrook Lane.  Turn left onto High Meadow Road. Laddins Rock Sanctuary is a very short distance down the Road on the left.  Park on the street.  (We parked on the left across from house #16.)

This park adjoins the Rosa Hartman Park in Stamford and the two can be combined for a longer walk. 

Trails:

10/20/2005.  On a slightly cool morning, Ceferino Santana, dog Sonar and I toured the Sanctuary.  The property starts with a big piece of lawn.  The stream is on the right.  The white-blazed trail starts by the red iron bridge over the stream on the right  or on the left heading uphill.  Both ways lead to the same place: Laddins Rock.  (As one approaches the Rock, the noise of the traffic on I-95 gets worse and worse.)  The rock is very impressive because it is so big.  And the stream is just a little ways below the rock.  When we were there the trail in spots was not well maintained.  We did a little bit of trail maintenance here and there.  For instance, an ash-leaf maple tree had fallen over the white trail by the stream.  It was blocking our way and so I did a lot of cutting with my shears until we could get through, even if we still had to climb over a couple of now naked branches and tree trunk.

The area is pretty with the rock and the stream.  And it can be combined with a tour of the Rosa Hartman Park.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick Cooney

*  = plant blooming on date of field trip, 10/20/2005

Trees:
Acer negundo (ash-leaf maple)
Acer platanoides (Norway maple)
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharinum (silver maple)
Ailanthus altissima (tree of heaven)
Aralia spinosa (Hercules club)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carya sp. (hickory)
Catalpa sp. (catalpa)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum)
Morus alba (white mulberry)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Salix sp. (willow)
Ulmus americana (American elm)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Ligustrum sp. (privet)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Viburnum sieboldii (Siebold's viburnum)

Vines:
Akebia quinata (akebia)
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Cuscuta sp. (dodder)
Hedera helix (English ivy)
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaved greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Aegopodium podagraria (goutweed)
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Allium vineale (field garlic)
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)
Plantago lanceolata (English plantain)
Plantago major (common plantain)
Polygonum cespitosum (cespitose smartweed)      *
Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed)
Rumex obtusifolius (broad dock)
Symplocarpus foetidus (swamp cabbage)

Rushes:
Juncus tenuis (path rush)

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (loose-flowered sedge type)

Grasses:
Setaria glauca (yellow foxtail grass)
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern)
Dryopteris carthusiana (toothed woodfern)
Polypodium sp. (rockcap fern)