Meadows

Arlington has worked to restore meadows in several parks and along powerlines over the last two decades. These plant communities are less common locally than forests and woods, and supply habitat for many plants and animals, especially our pollinators.

In Barcroft Park an old practice field was planted with native warm season grasses and sun loving wildflowers. A few years later, meadow wildlife began returning on their own.  A formerly lost butterfly species, the Little Wood Satyr, was rediscovered there. Currently we are planting once extirpated species such as Sugarcane Plume-Grass and Poke Milkweed there.

Meadows require management to prevent being shaded in by trees or taken over by invasive plants. Annual mowings simulate historically occurring disturbances, like fire and grazing, and keep areas open and sunny.  It is best to mow in early spring, letting dead stalks and stems provide overwintering habitat for native bees and caterpillars, but before ground nesting birds have arrived.

Native Plant of the Month

Virginia Spring Beauties

Claytonia virginica

The appropriately named Virginia Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) are indeed beautiful, if small, spring ephemerals: growing leaves, blooming, and producing seeds before the trees fully leaf out and then disappearing until the next spring. Their scientific name was assigned by Linnaeus himself in honor of John Clayton, one of Virginia's earliest naturalists. They can be quite abundant, blanketing open woodlands so thickly they sometimes look like snow. Carolina Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana) is another species that grows in the mountains West of our region. Read more.