Maryland Native Plant Society

The geology and climate of Maryland’s three western counties, Washington, Allegany and Garrett, support unique botanical resources. The Appalachian Plateau covers all of Garrett County and extreme western Allegany County. The Valley and Ridge province covers most of Allegany and Washington County while the Blue Ridge province covers the extreme eastern part of Washington County. The region contains shale barrens, limestone ridges, peatlands and mountain bogs. At the end of the last Ice Age, the cold-adapted plants migrated back north, remaining only in “frost pockets” such as exist in the Appalachian Plateau. The “frost pockets” of western Maryland support relict populations of sub-arctic flora, including tamarack, wild calla, Canadian burnet, red spruce, small cranberry and bog fern. Join us as we learn from expert botanists and ecologists how the western Maryland forests, bogs and shrub swamps are recovering from decades of logging and how they are likely to fare as the climate warms. Field trips to mountaintops, bogs and protected coves will acquaint us with the full range of western Maryland’s special flora.