Sunset Ponds
Cunningham Road, Warren, Litchfield County, Connecticut
17+ acres

Directions:

From the intersection of Route 7 and Route 341 in Kent village, drive 7.0 miles on Route 341 east to a right  turn onto Partridge Road; drive 0.8 of a mile to a T-intersection; turn left onto Cunningham Road.  You can park along the right side of the road.  There is no obvious trail. 

Trails:

8/19/2005.  Parked along the road and then went into the marshy area by the small bridge.  From the start it was not easy going.  I tripped at the top and rolled down the embankment to the bottom.  I just laughed, but I was lucky there were no sharp objects at the bottom.

It was an interesting experiment for there was this mystery plant (I thought it was a beggar tick or some type of cup plant) that was five foot high and extremely densely packed in the marsh.  It was also entangled with halberd-leaved tearthumb, so it was no easy trick to push through this wall of vegetation.  I did not do it for long for there was not much plant variation in the area dominated by this mystery plant. 

I pushed through to the marsh shoreline with a thin piece of woods between the marsh and the road.  Picked up some more species in the woods. 

Pushed through to the road and walked back to the car.  I noticed there was a lot of a shrub that looked like a mountain ash.  I looked it up in the purple book of illustrations to the Gleason and Cronquist book, but it did not match the mountain ashes.  So, great, a second mystery plant.  It is frustrating to still be getting these mystery plants after so many years botanizing.  Now I will have to carefully go through the books of plant illustrations.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney. 

first mystery plant  =  Bidens cernua?

second mystery plant  =  Sorbaria sorbifolia (false spirea or mountain ash spirea)

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = blooming on 8/19/2005

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust)

Shrubs:
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus hispidus (swamp dewberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Salix sp. (willow)
Sorbaria sorbifolia (false spiraea or mountain ash spiraea)   -- forms a hedge along the woods edge
Spiraea alba var. latifolia (meadowsweet)     *
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Viburnum dentatum (smooth arrowwood viburnum)

Vines:
Calystegia sepium (hedge bindweed)    
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Clematis virginiana (virgin's bower)     *
Vitis labrusca (fox grape)

Herbs:
Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed)      *
Bidens cernua ?  (nodding bur marigold)     *  --  thick, dense conglomeration of them
Erechtites hieraciifolia (pileweed)     *
Eupatorium fistulosum (trumpetweed)     *
Eupatorium perfoliatum (boneset)     *
Euthamia graminifolia (grass-leaved goldenrod)
Galium sp. (three-petaled, 4-5 leaves in whorl)     *
Hypericum sp. (common or spotted St. Johnswort)
Impatiens capensis (orange jewelweed)     *
Lemna sp. (duckweed)
Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife)     *
Maianthemum canadense (Canada mayflower)
Polygonum arifolium (halberd-leaved tearthumb)     *
Polygonum sagittatum (arrow-leaved tearthumb)     *
Saponaria officinalis (bouncing bet)     *
Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet nightshade)     *
Solidago gigantea (late goldenrod)     *
Sparganium sp. (burreed)
Stellaria pubera (star chickweed)     *
Triadenum virginicum (marsh St. Johnswort)
Typha latifolia (broad-leaved cattail)
Verbena hastata (blue vervain)     *
(cup plant or Bidens)     *

Rushes:
Juncus canadensis (Canada rush)
Juncus validus (soft-stem rush)

Sedges:
Carex lurida (sallow sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Scirpus cyperinus (woolly grass bulrush)

Grasses:
Bromus inermis (smooth brome grass)
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)
Glyceria canadensis (rattlesnake mannagrass)
Leersia oryzoides (rice-cut grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Dennstaedtia punctilobula (hay-scented fern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)  

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