Medford Wildlife Management Area
Medford township, Burlington County
214 acres

Directions:

West of Route 541, north of Medford.

(For maps see: www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/wmaland.htm)

History:

Medford; (Lakes) Medford, Massachusetts, and lakes in vicinity.

GREEN ACRES NATURAL AREA, MEDFORD LEAS, BURLINGTON CO., NJ. Bartonia.
Leader: Ted Gordon

We were invited by the Arboretum Oversight Committee of Medford Leas to conduct a field trip of their natural area for the express purpose of updating their species list, developed by the leader in 1992. The natural area is comprised of four major inner coastal plain communities: 1) palustrine nontidal emergent wetland; 2) palustrine forested wetland; 3) mesic mixed oak forest; and 4) successional forests (one of mature Pinus virginiana; the other of young Liquidambar styraciflua). Focus was on the palustrine forested wetland along Sharp's Run and Southwest Branch of Rancocas Creek (= Haynes Creek). Situated at the foot of a steep slope, this rich floodplain, underlain by sandy loam with some glauconite content, is characterized by a mixed forest community of fast-growing hardwoods. Important trees, several of them huge specimens, include

Trees:
Acer platanoides (Norway maple)
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharinum (silver maple)
Betula nigra (river birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya spp. (hickory)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Ilex opaca (American holly)
Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Magnolia virginiana (sweetbay magnolia)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus falcata (Spanish red oak)
Salix nigra (black willow)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
Ulmus americana (American elm)
Ulmus rubra (slippery elm)

Shrubs:
Clethra alnifolia (sweet pepperbush)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Corylus americana (American hazel)
Euonymus americanus (American euonymus)
Ilex verticillata (winterberry)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Sambucus canadensis (common elderberry)
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Viburnum dentatum (arrowwood viburnum)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)

Vines:
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)

Herbs:
Anemone quinquefolia (wood anemone)
Aquilegia canadensis (columbine)
Caltha palustris (marsh marigold)
Ceratophyllum demersum (coontail)
Chelone glabra (white turtlehead)
Chenopodium album (pigweed)
Impatiens capensis (orange jewelweed)
Lobelia cardinalis (cardinal flower)
Physalis subglabrata (ground cherry)
Podophyllum peltatum (mayapple)
Potamogeton epihydrus (ribbonleaf pondweed)
Rudbeckia laciniata (green-headed coneflower)
Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet nightshade)
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)

Grasses:
Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass)

Ferns:
Athyrium thelypteroides (silvery gladefern)
Dryopteris carthusiana (woodfern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)