Location of new meadow along the parkway  just north of Dennis Ave.

As you travel along Sligo Creek Parkway between Dennis Avenue and University Blvd. this summer, keep an eye out for a modest new meadow being established by Montgomery Parks on a sunny slope along the east side of the roadway.

In early May, Parks staff planted a seed-mix with more than two dozen species of native wildflowers, most of them regional eco-types.

Once the plants become established, they will beautify the parkway for human eyes and provide valuable nectar and pollen for foraging insects and birds.

The site will be mowed a few times this June and July to encourage warm-season grasses.  Once the meadow is established and competition from weeds has been reduced (two or three years after planting), mowing will be limited to once a year in winter.  Extensive flowering is unlikely in the first year or two, as many of these plants need a couple of seasons to establish strong root systems before putting on showy displays of flowers for humans to enjoy and pollinators to forage on. 

The site of the new meadow as it appeared in early May of 2020  before wildflower seeding was done (Parks photo)

 

About two-thirds of the seed mix is p urple coneflower, l anceleaf coreopsis, partridge pea , smooth oxeye, O hio spiderwort, and m arsh blazing star.

The rest consists of a romatic aster, z igzag aster, black-eyed Susan , g olden alexander, s mooth blue aster,  New England aster, b lue false indigo, b utterfly milkweed, n arrowleaf mountainmint, w ild senna, w ild bergamot, g ray goldenrod, m istflower, w hite avens, t all white beardtongue, t all coreopsis,  Maryland senna, s undrops, l icorice scented goldenrod, h airy beardtongue, and o range coneflower.

To see the full list of species with Latin names, eco-types, and percentages of each in the mix, go to this page at the Ernst Conservation Seeds website for their Showy Northeast Native Wildflower Mix. 

This small meadow is the second project of its kind in Sligo. A much larger meadow was planted across from the Sligo Golf Course in 2016 and 2017 but suffered considerable damage during repair work to underground infrastructure by Washington Gas. Montgomery Parks plans to restore the meadow with compensation from the gas company.  

For more information on this meadow project, contact  [email protected] .

Enjoy this selection from hundreds of photos submitted to iNaturalist in May and collected into the "project" titled "Fauna and Flora of the Sligo Creek Watershed." 

Below left is chicory, photographed in Piney Branch Portal Park on May 27. This member of the aster family, native to Eurasia, was brought to North America in 1785 by the governor of Massachusetts and is now widely naturalized.

Below right is a native mining bee collecting pollen (probably from multiflora rose) for its brood of eggs laid in a nest tunneled into bare ground; it was photographed near the intersection of Brunett Avenue and the Parkway on May 25.

Below left are cottontail rabbits near the corner of Fenton St. and New York Ave. on May 25. During courtship, as Charles Fergus describes it, both sexes "leap high into the air in an exuberant display."

Below right is a zabulon skipper (a native butterfly) seen near Kennebec and Houston on May 25. Their caterpillars feed on grasses while spring adults feed on the nectar of blackberry, clover, vetch, privet, and honeysuckle.

At left is blue-eyed grass (a native iris) captured here near Hickory and Montgomery Avenues on May 23.

Below left is a Solitary Sandpiper (a species that passes through Sligo on migration) seen on May 13; below right is a Veery (which nests in Sligo) on May 15; its somewhat eerie  song  harmonizes with itself in a downward spiral; both were observed at the Wheaton Branch ponds.