Spring wildflowers of Cunningham Park, Queens

Glaciers carved out the topography of Cunninham Park, with dry oak-hickory forests on the knobs, rich forests in the kettles, and often red maple-hardwood swamps when kettle ponds are present.

First we'll explore the oak-hickory forests growing on well-drained soils that include flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) and maple-leaved viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium). The understory here has an abundance of native wildflowers. In bloom, we should see - wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia)-see photo above-, wild oats (Uvularia sessilifolia), wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), and wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) .

The tulip tree-maple forest grows in rich moist soils of the kettles and also includes sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and alternate-leaved dogwood (Cornus alternifolia). Also here - a profusion of ferns, such as sensitive (Onoclea sensibilis), interrupted (Osmunda claytoniana), rattlesnake (Botrychium virginianum) and southern lady ferns (Athyrium asplenioides). Wildflowers include aniseroot (Osmorhiza longistylis) and smooth Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum).

Walk Leader: Marielle Anzelone is the founder of NYC Wildflower Week. She talks local flora on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show. Follow @nycbotanist on instagram

NYC Wildflower Week thanks Con Edison for their generous support of these botanical foray.

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