The Maryland Native Plant Society

The Maryland Native Plant Society
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  • MNPS Meeting: "Travilah Serpentine Barrens: A Globally Rare Natural Community"

MNPS Meeting: "Travilah Serpentine Barrens: A Globally Rare Natural Community"

  • 11/25/2008
  • 7:30 PM
  • White Oak Library

Join Carole Bergmann, M-NCPPC Forest Ecologist and MNPS past president, for a presentation on one of Maryland's rarest natural communities. The Travilah Serpentine Barrens in Montgomery County is probably the largest and best remaining example of the globally rare Ultramafic Woodlands community in the mid-Atlantic region. "These naturally rare woodlands are only known from scattered locations in the mountains and piedmont of Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania." (Virginia DCR, Division of Natural Heritage). The woodlands at the Travilah site occur on fairly flat to gently rolling, rocky uplands and are underlain closely by ultramafic rock, which produces a shallow, very dry soil high in magnesium and iron that can inhibit plant growth. Oaks, hickories, short leaf pine, and various ericads thrive in these conditions, comprising a "flatwoods" intermixed with grassy glades and colonies of plants such as Leonard's skullcap and wild crabapple.

Location: White Oak Library - Large Meeting Room

Directions: Exit the Washington Beltway at New Hampshire Ave (exit 28). Go north about 2 miles. The library is the first building on the right, once you have passed under Route 29, just after the Sears store.

There will be refreshments and door prizes. Pot luck refreshments are always welcome.

The meeting is open to non-members.

Meetings take place on the last Tuesday of each month.

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