Swan Tract: Opossum Road Woods
Opossum Road, Montgomery Township, NJ

Directions:

Heading south on Route 206 turn right onto Franklin Turnpike (Route 518); turn right onto Opossum Road (a one-way road at this point); soon after passing over the single lane bridge over Beden's Brook, park along the road.

History:

1822 -- the Opossum Road Bridge, a double-arched, camelbacked, random rubble bridge, is built, the second oldest bridge in Somerset County.

2002 -- bridge rehabilitated.

Trails:

There is a short trail (part of the Montgomery Pathways) on the western side of the road heading along the good-sized Beden's Brook and returning.

http://twp.montgomery.nj.us/swan.pdf

PLANT LIST:
Drs. Patrick and Rosemary Cooney
* = blooming on 11/01/03

Trees:
Acer negundo (box elder)
Acer platanoides (Norway maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula nigra (river birch)
Carya cordiformis (bitternut hickory)
Carya sp. (hickory)
Catalpa sp. (catalpa)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Maclura pomifera (osage orange)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Prunus sp. (cherry)
Pyrus sp. (crab apple)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)
Ulmus americana (American elm)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Ligustrum sp. (privet)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush) lots and lots
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)
Vinca minor (periwinkle)

Vines:
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Aegopodium podagraria (goutweed) ?
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Allium vineale (field garlic)
Aster spp. (heath aster type) *
Cirsium arvense (Canada thistle)
Duchesnea indica (Indian strawberry)
Eupatorium rugosum (white snakeroot)
Geum canadense (white avens)
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Pilea pumila (clearweed)
Polygonum cespitosum (cespitose smartweed) *
Polygonum hydropiper (water pepper)
Polygonum lapathifolium (nodding smartweed) *
Polygonum virginianum (jumpseed)
Saururus cernuus (lizard's tail)

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (loose-flowered sedge)

Grasses:
Elymus hystrix (bottle brush grass)
Elymus sp. (wild rye grass)
Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass)
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)