LAFAYETTE M.U.A.
Dutchess County, NY
718 acres

Directions:

Taconic Parkway north; exit onto NY 199 east towards Pine Plains; drive 2 miles, passing Lafayette and Lafayette House and Wilbur Pond on the right; turn left onto the one-lane dirt track Wilbur Flats Road to a parking area on the left.

History:

This used to be a farm. Man-made pond.

Habitats:

deciduous woods, conifers plantings, wet meadows, fields, shrub swamp, marsh.

Trails:

The parking lot is about half way down the road between the two entrances (the one off Rt. 199 and the one off the Taconic State Parkway). You can walk into the woods by the parking area going slightly uphill to a small ridge that has recently burned (11/08/01). There is a lot of reindeer lichen here. This area is used as a party area by locals (probably) with a lot of garbage at the end of the small ridge.

Or you can cross to the other side of the parking lot and go into the woods following an unmarked rough trail that parallels the marsh; goes over a brook; around a small ridge, and goes out to a large field (northwest corner of it). You can walk all the way around the field and return to the northwest corner and head back to the car.

Wilbur Pond is not that great for plants -- its sides are too steep, so there is not that much marsh around it.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney

Trees:
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Larix decidua (European larch) planted quite a few
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Picea abies (Norway spruce) planted
Pinus sp. (western red pine) planted
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Pyrus malus (apple tree)
Quercus bicolor (swamp white oak)?
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Salix nigra (black willow)

Shrubs:
Alnus sp. (alder)
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Cornus racemosa (gray stem dogwood)
Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive)
Euonymus europaeus (European spindle tree)
Ligustrum sp. (privet)
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Pyrus sp. (crab apple)
Rhamnus cathartica (common buckthorn)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Salix sp. (willow)
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Viburnum dentatum (arrowwood viburnum)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Humulus sp. (hops)?
Polygonum scandens (climbing bindweed)
Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet nightshade)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Achillea millefolium (yarrow)
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Arctium sp. (burdock)
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)
Centaurea maculosa (spotted knapweed)
Chelidonium majus (celandine)
Cirsium arvense (Canada thistle)
Cirsium sp. (thistle)
Coronilla varia (crown vetch)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Euthamia graminifolia (grass-leaved goldenrod)
Galium mollugo (wild madder)
Galium sp. (bedstraw)
Geum canadense (white avens)
Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife)
Phalaris arundinacea (reed canary grass)
Plantago lanceolata (English plantain)
Plantago major (common plantain)
Ranunculus sp. (swamp buttercup)?
Satureja vulgaris (wild basil)
Trifolium pratense (red clover)
Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot)
Typha latifolia (broad-leaved cattail)
Verbascum thapsus (common mullein)
Verbena hastata (blue vervain)
Veronica officinalis (common speedwell)

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Scirpus atrovirens (dark-green bulrush)
Scirpus cyperinus (woolly grass bulrush)

Grasses:
Bromus inermis (smooth brome grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Schizachyrium scoparium (little blue stem grass)
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)

Ferns:
Dryopteris intermedia (fancy woodfern)
Dryopteris marginalis (marginal woodfern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)