After coming home to Takoma Park, Maryland for the break I had to find a new phenology place to blog about. Luckily, there is a small and beautiful deciduous forest across the street from my house called Forest Park.
Spanning about 5 acres, this woodland is owned by the 24 home owners that surround the area. The area is very ecologically diverse and has a great deal of species. Some of the tree species I noticed include Tulip Poplar, Beech, Elm, White Oak, Ash, Bamboo, Trifoliate Orange, and Holly. My family has recently got into learning about mushrooms and harvesting the correct types for eating so it was interesting to go on a walk with them and study a natural occurrence that we hadn’t learned about in class. There were a lot more species of trees and other plants in Forest Park than there was at the Redstone Quarry. Not all of the leaves had fallen from every tree which was a refreshing view from all of the bare trees at the quarry. The bamboo that grows at the front of the forest is interesting to study because it is an invasive plant and you can see it slowly taking over the area as I’ve watched it grow as I grew up. The Trifoliate Orange tree is the only citrus plant that can survive in Maryland and it was cool to see it in my front yard and appreciate its resilience to our climate. I have always had a connection to Forest Park because I grew up playing in it, but it was very interesting to take a step back and look at the forest through a new lens of ecology and study the pieces, processes, and patterns.
Bamboo 
A tree that still had foliage! 
The landscape 
Trifoliate Orange 
Bracket Fungus