Riverside Park
Riverside Street, Riverside Park, New Canaan, Fairfield County, Connecticut

Directions:

Merritt Parkway north to exit 37; turn left onto South Street (Route 124) heading north; pass by Waveny Park on the left and at the intersection with Farm Road, turn right; at the T-intersection, turn left and then almost immediately right onto Old Norwalk Road; turn left onto Old Kings Highway and head down to the intersection with New Norwalk Road; turn left; turn right onto Brushy Ridge Road; in a short distance, just over Five Mile River, turn left onto River Street.  There is no parking on either side of this street.  So maybe you can try  Charles Place or Strawberry Hill Road, both streets off Riverside Street.

Trails:

10/25/2005.  On a very nice day, Ceferino Santana, dog Sonar and I parked along what we thought was a street off of Riverside Street. (When we returned to the car we had a note on the car saying something to the effect that "I know you probably don't know this but you are parked on a private driveway.  In the future would you please park elsewhere.  The De Scalas."  There was no sign.) 

How can they get away with calling this a park?  It really is just a left over piece of property that nobody wanted back when.  There are no trails, no parking facilities, in fact, no facilities at all.  It is just a slice of woods on either side of the Five Mile River.  The neighbors, as typical of such "parks", throw their landscape waste on the border of the place.  We walked along the eastern side of the river.  It was tough going.   There are a lot of invasive species that have clogged the way.  (We did find the remains of a one-time walkway lined by bricks, but it too was overgrown.) The invasives are the typical ones: winged euonymus, multiflora rose, Asiatic bittersweet.  As we neared the intersection with Bushy Ridge Road, we had to turn back because of private property.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney. 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
*  =  plant in bloom on date of field trip, 10/25/2005

Trees:
Acer platanoides (Norway maple)
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Ailanthus altissima (tree of heaven)
Carya cordiformis (bitternut hickory)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Ulmus americana (American elm)

Shrubs and sub-shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)   lots of it
Ligustrum sp. (privet)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Lonicera morrowii? (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Pachysandra terminalis (pachysandra)  big colony of it
Ribes sativum (garden red currant)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)     lots of it
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Viburnum sieboldii (Siebold's viburnum)
Vinca minor (periwinkle)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Euonymus fortunii (Fortune's euonymus)
Hedera helix (English ivy)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaf greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Aster cordifolius (heart-leaved aster)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Eupatorium rugosum (white snakeroot)
Geum canadense (white avens)
Impatiens sp. (jewelweed)
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Polygonum cespitosum (cespitose knotweed)
Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed)
Polygonum virginianum (Virginia knotweed)
Trifolium pratense (red clover)

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

 

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