Tall Oaks Park
New York Avenue, Wayne Township, Passaic County, New Jersey

Directions:

US 23 north; exit at New York Avenue; drive to the end of the avenue and park. 

Or New York Avenue to a right turn on Bergen Street; left on Newark; left on Edith Ct.  Park at the circle and enter through the gate.

Trails:

5/23/2005.  On an overcast day, Ceferino Santana, dog Sonar and I  toured part of the park.  Well, that is if we were on the right side of Packanack Brook.  We will have to go again because as we were leaving we saw a No Trespassing sign along Bergen Street woods.   Well, anyway, I will tell of  the trip on the west side of Packanack Brook.  We did not find a way to cross the brook which sure looks sluggish here.

We parked at the end of New York Avenue.  We started walking straight ahead, basically heading east.  The trail was very black and muddy.  There must be quite a bit of ATV activity here and at least this trail was pretty terrible.  There are quite a few ruts in the path.  This place must be extremely wet and muddy in early spring.  We kept heading east until we reached the Brook.  We then turned left to walk along a much better path.  The difficult part of the walk was getting up onto a causeway path heading across the path we were on.  It is very steep here.  We got up on the causeway and turned left heading the short distance to the edge of the golf course.  We turned around and went back to our Brook walk.  We walked north until we reached the golf course.  Then we turned around and walked as far as we could on the Brook path  -- until we reached a gate facing onto the circle at the end of Edith Court.  We then turned around and walked back to the middle of the trail and headed west back to the car.  Dr. Patrick Cooney. 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = plant found in bloom on date of field trip, 5/23/05

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Morus alba (white mulberry)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)  *
Pyrus sp. (apple) 
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Ulmus americana (American elm)

Shrubs:
Cornus racemosa (gray dogwood) 
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Sambucus canadensis (common elderberry)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) *
Allium vineale (field garlic)
Arisaema triphyllum (Jack in the pulpit)
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)
Barbarea vulgaris (common wintercress)  *
Cardamine rhomboidea (spring cress)  *
Chenopodium album (pigweed) 
Claytonia virginica (spring beauty)  *
Coronilla varia (crown vetch) 
Galium aparine (cleavers)  *
Glechoma hederacea (gill-over-the-ground)  *
Hackelia virginiana (Virginia stickseed) 
Impatiens sp. (jewelweed)
Iris sp. (iris)
Lycopus virginicus (Virginia bugleweed)
Nuphar advena (southern pond lily)
Polygonum arifolium (halberd-leaved tearthumb) 
Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed)
Polygonum sp. (knotweed)  lots 
Potentilla canadensis (dwarf cinquefoil)  *
Ranunculus abortivus (kidney-leaved crowfoot)
Ranunculus hispidus var. caricetorium (swamp buttercup) 
Ranunculus sp. (buttercup)  *
Rumex obtusifolius (broad dock)
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage) 
Urtica dioica var. dioica (stinging nettle) 
Viola sp. (violet)

Sedges:
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)

Grasses:
Bromus sp. (Japanese chess grass) ? 
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass) 
Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass) 
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass) 
Phragmites australis (giant reedgrass) 
Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass)

Ferns:
Equisetum arvense (field horsetail) 
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)