Spring in the Potomac Gorge – A Field Trip with Cris Fleming

Date/Time
Saturday, April 18, 2015
9:00 am - 1:00 pm

Contact
potowmack@vnps.org

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VNPS programs are free and open to the public, however, space is limited and registration for field events is required. 

Please RSVP through Eventbrite at https://vnps20150418.eventbrite.com

Join chapter Botany Chair Cris Fleming for a walk through one of our area’s best spring wildflower displays.  Famous for the spectacular show of Virginia bluebells along the Potomac River, Turkey Run Park also harbors other early spring flowers such as dwarf ginseng, swamp buttercup, wild geranium, sessile trillium, perfoliate bellwort and many others.  Participants need to be able to walk the zig-zag trail down the steep hillside and to cross the creek on rocks (there will be helping hands).  Depending on the warmth of previous weeks, we may see the very early bloomers like harbinger of spring.  Large oaks, beech, tuliptree, basswood, sugar maple and other mature trees form an exceptionally fine hardwood forest at Turkey Run.  A well-developed floodplain, rocky bluffs, and deep ravines are habitats of this 200 acre park.

Cris Fleming, is a former teacher of Spring Wildflower Identification for the Graduate School USA.  She is the main author of the book Finding Wildflowers in the Washington-Baltimore Area.  Cris has worked as a contract botanist for the Virginia Division of Natural Heritage and the Maryland Natural Heritage Program.  She leads many wildflower, fern and tree programs, and walks for the Audubon Naturalist Society, the Maryland Native Plant Society, and the Potowmack Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society.

Details and starting point for the walk will be sent to registered participants. Space is limited.