My phenology site is located near the footbridge over Centennial Brook, which can be reached simply by following the trail. To get to the site, one must either go through some grasses on the right before one reaches the bridge, or one can cross the bridge, follow the brook bank to the right, and jump over the stream.

In this area, there are many long grasses, ferns, and herbaceous shrubs along the edge of the water. Looking into the nearby clearing, there is a huge group of cattails, surrounded by towering Eastern White Pines. There is also a wide variety of woody plants, from bushes to trees. One particular bush that stuck out was White Baneberry, a plant which has bright violet stems with many highly toxic eyeball-like berries, which are white with a black dot. Other woody plants were some Boxelders near the brook, and some Honeysuckle growing nearer to the cattails, on the other side of the stream. I also noticed a nearly leafless tree with some wild grape vines growing around its branches. This spot seems very promising in its biodiversity and I look forward to observing its changes as the season goes by.

All photos are by the author (Kevin Melman) unless specified otherwise