As summer progresses, the daylighted Broad Branch stream is maturing. The tadpoles I’ve been watching since they hatched are growing bigger. And wildflowers have burst out, giving the pollinators – bees, flies and butterflies – a delectable menu. Here are some of their entrees, which can all be found close to Linnean Avenue and Broad Branch Road:
Clockwise from upper left: Common pickerel weed, swamp milkweed, wild black-eyed Susan, white mallow
Clockwise from upper left: Common Hawkweed, clover, native coreopsis, orange milkweed
The pond and lilies I found in June dried up during a heatwave that soon followed, but thanks to the torrential late July and early August rains, the pools have been restored, as have the lilies. Lily pads are in two ponds now.
Clockwise from upper left: Cattails, thistle, an Eastern tailed blue butterfly at rest, unidentified bloom (Do you know what it is?)
Some of these wildflowers were planted by volunteers on April 1, 2017. Dani Churchill, an intern with the Rock Creek Conservancy, waters them with the aid of a high school student volunteer.
Rock Creek Conservancy’s Dani Churchill.
This work is supported by the DC Department of Environment and Energy grant awarded to Katrina Weinig, under the umbrella of Forest Hills Neighborhood Alliance, and administered by Rock Creek Conservancy. Churchill and her helper had been hooking a hose to a hydrant but had to discontinue because they did not have a permit. So instead, they’re using stream water to fill containers and lugging them to the planted beds.
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Jane Solomon says
The little blue flower looks like borage to me.
Paul says
I cannot tell from the image, but those “white mallows” might actually be hibiscus syriacus, commonly known as Rose of Sharon. I believe white mallow is native to the SW U.S. The white Rose of Sharon is rampant in sections on the Linnean Playground area. I’ve wondered if it is there intentionally or is a volunteer. Rose of Sharon can become invasive.
Marjorie Rachlin says
Lovely photos and very informative article. Marjorie
Darlene Robbins says
A few comments on the plants pictured above. In the first set, the pink-flowered plant is actually Joe pyeweed (Eupatorium fistulosum), not swamp milkweed, although some swamp milkweed has also been planted at Broad Branch. Though a bit hard to tell from the photo, the white-flowering hibiscus is likely swamp rosemallow (Hibiscus moscheutos), especially if it is growing only along the stream margins, as it requires consistently wet soil conditions. The flowers look a lot like Rose of Sharon, which can definitely spread around as Paul has noted, but the leaves of the swamp rosemallow tend to be larger and less stiff in appearance. The thistle pictured in the last set of images, though highly attractive to pollinators, is most likely bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare), a highly invasive weed that the NPS controls for at Broad Branch. I will provide Marlene with a complete list of plant species planted at Broad Branch Park from both the Nov. 2016 and Apr. 2017 plantings. The stream restoration contractor also planted many species, such as the swamp rosemallow, pickerelweed, and the water lilies.