By the end of the 24-hour period at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 16th, we had a working tally of 612 species seen. This number will in fact grow as specimens collected during surveying are fully identified back in labs and over countless cups of coffee with identification guides! We feel confident that our final total will be more than 640 species seen.
American featherfoil
Wood turtle
photo by Blaine Rothauser
Botanists Kerry Baringer and Steve Glenn from Brooklyn Botanic Garden along with several other local botanists surveyed more than 200 different species of plants. The most unusual found in their quest was a little plant known as American featherfoil, Hottonia inflata. This plant is found on rarity indexes with what is known as an S1, very rare within New Jersey, yet the botanists found it in reasonable numbers in multiple places around the refuge. When asked if he was surprised to find it, Kerry’s response was that the more you look the more plants like this you are going to find, and that is one of the things that excites him about turning this kind of close focus on an area.
Among the interesting “herps” (reptiles and amphibians) seen were blue-spotted salamander larvae and wood turtles, both endangered species.
Check back for the final tally.