Today I visited the lovely Crescent Woods for the first time :). Before I get into explaining the vegetation, I’ll detail a bit about the trip there.
The Journey
To briefly explain how I got there; I walked around the back of the redstone apartments, walked down past the country club, and then through a residential neighborhood until I arrived at Crescent St. This was a very peaceful walk on this sunny high 40s day, and I found out that I missed seeing suburbs more than I thought I would.
The Exploration
When entering Crescent Woods, you descend down some cute wooden stairs down to the bay of Englesby Brook. Along the walking path the dominant tree species are Sugar Maples, Norway Maples, and Ashes. There were also some American Beeches, and farther into the forest were Eastern Hemlocks. Although I did not encounter any of the trees themselves, I did find dead White Oak leaves scattered across the ground. Most of these trees are very young and make up the understory. There are not many large overstory trees, and most of them are Maples and Ashes. For small plants, there are ferns throughout and some sprouts of grass along the walking path. Along the river bank I noticed two species of small plants, but I was not able to identify them. The soil in this area was moist and dark brown in color, and was absolutely covered in leaf litter. There were also many fallen branches and logs throughout the woods.
*photos are mine*