We went to Arlington, Ma this weekend to visit our daughter and her hubby, while there they took us to this little jewel in the middle of an urban area.
Arlington's Great Meadows is a 183-acre parcel of land located in east Lexington. It is the largest piece of undeveloped land in the Arlington/Lexington area. It is part of the Mystic River watershed. Once a glacial lake, it is now a wet meadow surrounded by uplands created by glacial outwash. Great Meadows was purchased by Arlington in 1871 to serve as a supplementary water storage area, but was only briefly used for that purpose. However, it remains a valuable buffer against flooding in the area.
Here is a link to a nice walking tour of the meadows..I just read there is a Woodcock Peenting area!
Its so nice that these areas stay undeveloped.
………………………………………………………………..
We had a Jeep led tour of the park…
Jeep meets Pink Lady's Slipper
I did not expect to see Pink Lady's Slipper.
There were many clumps of them..
I have not seen them in clumps like this in many years..
We also saw lots of..
Wild sarsaparilla is a 1-2 foot tall shrub common to the forest understories of southern New England. It produces tiny white flowers in spherical clusters beneath the compound leaves, which ripen into blue-black berries in mid-summer. The rhizome of wild sarsaparilla has a sweet, aromatic taste, and sometimes has substituted for sassafras in the making of home-made root beer.
Have any of you tried making root beer with the roots of this plant?
Anyone good on grasshopper ID?
Our daughter, who is pregnant, and due in just a few weeks had to take breaks now and then.
ID?
I shot of few photos to ID it..
It had no blue left..I assume from the markings it still had that it is a Mourning Cloak.
A Great place to grab a bit of nature in the city!
Thanks for the Jeep tour Jeff C.!
No comments:
Post a Comment
ok what do you really think?????