Thompson Pond Preserve
Pine Plains, Dutchess County, NY
466 acres

Directions:

Taconic State Parkway north; NY 82; turn west onto Lake Road; drive 1.5 miles to a dirt pull-off on the left and park.

Geology:

Here is the 1,403 foot high Precambrian gneiss-granite Stissing Mountain. They are not certain of its origin. Some say it is a klippe pushed and isolated here 350 million years ago when the North American and African continental plates collided.

There are three lakes in the area: Twin Island or Mud Lake, Stissing Pond, and Thompson Pond. Thompson Pond is a circumneutral bog. It differs from the typical acid northern bogs of New England and Canada. At Thompson Pond is a soupy peat.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney, April 12, 2002
* indicates plants found in bloom

Trees:
Acer pensylvanicum (striped maple)
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula papyrifera (white birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya glabra (pignut hickory)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Picea abies (Norway spruce)
Picea mariana (black spruce)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus prinus (chestnut oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Salix sp. (willow) *
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)
Ulmus americana (American elm)

Shrubs and sub-shrubs:
Alnus serrulata (smooth alder)
Amelanchier arborea (shadbush)
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)?
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush) *
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Quercus ilicifolia (scrub oak)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus hispidus (swamp dewberry)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Sambucus canadensis (common elderberry)
Spiraea tomentosa (steeplebush)
Staphylea trifolia (bladdernut)
Vaccinium corymbosum (high-bush blueberry)
Vaccinium sp. (a low bush blueberry)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Cuscuta sp. (dodder)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Achillea millefolium (yarrow)
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Allium tricoccum (wild leek)
Allium vineale (field garlic)
Aster divaricatus (white wood aster)
Cardamine pratensis (cuckoo flower)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Dicentra cucullaria (Dutchman's breeches)
Drosera rotundifolia (round-leaved sundew)
Eriocaulon sp. (pipewort)
Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry)
Galium sp. (bedstraw)
Geum canadense (white avens)
Glechoma hederacea (gill-over-the-ground) *
Hepatica americana (round-lobed hepatica)
Impatiens sp. (jewelweed)
Lemna sp. (duckweed)
Leonurus cardiaca (motherwort)
Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife)
Nymphaea odorata (white water lily)
Potentilla sp. (cinquefoil)
Prunella vulgaris (self-heal)
Pyrola rotundifolia (round-leaved shinleaf)
Ranunculus sp. (buttercup)
Rumex obtusifolius (broad-leaved dock)
Sedum telephioides (garden sedum) lots
Solidago sp. (goldenrod)
Stellaria media (common chickweed) *
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion) *
Triadenum virginicum (marsh St. Johnswort)
Trifolium pratense (red clover)
Trillium sp. (trillium) * soon
Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot) *
Typha angustifolia (narrow-leaved cattail)
Typha latifolia (broad-leaved cattail)
Veronica officinalis (common speedwell)

Rushes:
Luzula multiflora (woodrush)

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora (sedge)
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge) *
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Eleocharis sp. (spikerush)

Grasses:
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)

Ferns:
Equisetum sp. (horsetail)
Lycopodium dentatum (ground cedar clubmoss)
Dennstaedtia punctilobula (hay-scented fern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda sp. (cinnamon fern)?
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)

Others:
rock tripe lichen
Sphagnum sp. (sphagnum moss)

Busch, P.S. (ed.). 1976. The ecology of Thompson Pond in Dutchess County, New York. The Nature Conservancy, Boston, MA.