Great Brewster Island Plants

In a two-year project funded by the Island Alliance to study the vegetation of the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area, 32 islands were surveyed and inventoried for vascular plant species. Field surveys began on 9 June 2001 and ended on 30 September 2002.

Below is the data collected for Great Brewster Island.

Island Acreage: 23.9

Owner: DEM

Rare Plants: Suaeda richii (1976)

Quadrangle: Hull, MA

Survey Dates: 19 August, 2001; 31 May, 2002; 31 July, 2002.

Data Notes:

• = introduced species

(v) = voucher specimen

(p) = photograph

Due to formatting restrictions, species scientific names are not italicized in the data table.

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Notes on Habitats and Flora

Shrub-dominated uplands are the most extensive habitat on Great Brewster, especially on the slopes and summits of the drumlins. Old fields and dry, disturbed, open grounds occur in the saddle between the drumlins. One small, disturbed, Phragmites-dominated wetland is located in the center of the island. This wetland has little diversity, and was bone dry on the day of the survey. Other habitats on the island include beach strand, primarily on the island’s western shore, and cracks in the rocks along the seawall on the island’s east side.

In 1976, Julio Hernandez recorded Suaeda richii, a watch-listed species that occurs in beach strand habitat, on the island (Hernandez 1976). This species was not found in this survey. The Suaeda genus is perplexing, and the possibility that either Hernandez or I have misidentified one or more sea-blite specimens collected on Great Brewster is a possibility.

Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) grows in a thicket on the high drumlin’s southwestern slope. Snowberry is an endangered species in Massachusetts, occurring in the wild only in Berkshire and Franklin Counties (Sorrie and Somers 1999). The snowberry shrubs that grow here are presumed to be garden escapes. Other plants that have naturalized on Great Brewster that were not observed on any other of the Harbor Islands include Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) and common flax (Linum usitatissimum).

This island was visited only once in 2001, and due to the ferry schedule, which allowed only two hours on the island, and a self-invited, conversational amateur botanist whom I could not shake, the Great Brewster survey is incomplete. Great Brewster should be surveyed for flora again in 2002.

Where this belongs

• Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

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