We had gorgeous weather for our joint Passionflower/Cuplet Fern field trip to Lake Louisa State Park on December 7, 2019. Chris Matson, the park biologist, led the 21 trip participants on a tour of the restoration areas and talked about park history and evolving efforts to restore native plant communities.
We started with a tour of the garden at the Ranger Station. There are two parts to the garden - the butterfly garden and the habitat garden. Started in 2003/2004 the butterfly garden is full of beautiful native plants which Passionflower members are helping to maintain. Although trees were planted in the habitat section of the garden, which is intended to showcase 5 upland plant communities, the understory and wildflowers/groundcover are still being planted/developed.
After the garden tour the group drove to various restoration areas. You would think that there wouldn't be much to see in December, but there were still plants in bloom and lots of native grasses with diverse infloreescence types. Enjoy the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEDdfhDGpDc