Slate 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 Slate Island.

Island Acreage: 12.7

Owner: DEM

Quadrangle: Hull, MA

Survey Dates: 21 June, 2001; 30 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

Slate Island was surveyed only once, in June, 2001. It deserves another, more thorough visit later in the season in 2002.

The island’s upland habitats consist primarily of dense thickets of shrubs and small trees, including Betula populifolia, Lonicera morrowii, Myrica gale, Populus grandidentata and P. tremuloides, and Rhus typhina. The island’s poison ivy (Toxicododendron radicans) population is exceptionally large, dominating patches of dense thickets on the upper part of the island. Hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula) also grows in abundance in more open thickets.

The highest part of the island has dry, open, “barren” patches on slate outcroppings. Two unusual plants found in these open habitats include a small population of golden heather (Hudsonia ericoides) growing in a dry opening on the western side of the island. This plant, which typically grows on sandy barrens, was not found anywhere else in the Harbor Islands. In the same area, there is a whorled loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia) population, otherwise found only on World’s End.

Shoreline habitats were investigated rapidly, and the species noted for the rocky shoreline, mudflats, and patches of sandy beach (Atriplex patula, Limonium nashii, Spartina alterniflora and S. patens) are an incomplete representation of the flora of these habitats on Slate Island. The southeastern side of the island has a small, open freshwater pool, with Phragmites growing on its edges.

Where this belongs

• Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

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