By Nancy Ostman
Cornell Plantations Director of Natural Areas
Two recent additions to the natural areas of Cornell Plantations contain locally rare ecological communities and plant species.
photo/Robert Wesley
Narrow-leaved grape ferns (Botrychium lanceolatum) grow in Bald Hill's unique chestnut oak forest.
The first tract was brought to our attention by Cornell graduate Robert Beck, an avid local naturalist with excellent observation skills. This 120-acre, landlocked parcel, which was owned by the Town of Caroline, is now part of the Palmer-Adams Tract, a Cornell natural area on Bald Hill.
A locally rare community is represented here: chestnut oak forest with a mountain laurel understory. Although this community is more common further south, Bald Hill is the only place in central New York where this forest type occurs and where mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) is abundant. As one travels south from Ithaca, the hills become steeper and the soils more acidic; both conditions are due to the decreasing influence of glaciation. Here, on the drier, more exposed, southwest-facing slopes where chestnut oak is abundant, the forest canopy is rather open, allowing the mountain laurel to thrive. Also present are several grape ferns — Botychium lanceolatum and B. simplex are both locally scarce species, and B. oneidense is a state threatened species. The locally rare Jefferson salamander (Ambystoma jeffersonii) also lives here. A steep-sided ravine with tall hemlocks crosses the length of the property.
photo/Robert Wesley
The globally endangered American globeflower (Trollius laxus) grows in a rich fen in Groton.
Our second acquisition, a rich fen on Old Stage Road in the Town of Groton, was brought to our attention by Matt Young, a keen botanist and birder. Young was searching for fens between Syracuse and Ithaca in a quest for the uncommon birds that make these sites home. Groundwater discharge in fens creates an environment for plants that is constantly cool, moist, and highly alkaline, with low nutrient availability. As a result, fens generally have low, open vegetation. Many locally rare or scarce plant species are present in this fen, including the Finger Lakes region's second-largest known population of the critically important American globeflower (Trollius laxus).
American globeflower is endangered on a global level, but the eastern subspecies is most abundant in the area between Cortland and Ithaca, New York, probably because its ideal habitat still remains there. Besides the many rare plants and uncommon birds that drew Young to this site, rare arthropods (a large phylum including insects, spiders, and crustaceans) are likely to occur in rich fens such as this one, but since they have not yet been surveyed, more discoveries await us!
Read more about the Plantations’ Natural Areas on the Plantations’ website.