Plant ID & Ecology: Estuary Plants

Offered in partnership with the Native Plant Trust, join us for a special field study at the Trust’s exquisite Coffin Wildflower Preserve. This 177-acre shoreline sanctuary is located along Merrymeeting Bay, the meeting place of six rivers that, together, drain much of Maine’s landscape. This freshwater tidal estuary hosts a specialized and rare habitat with a unique array of colorful plants growing in shallows and mudflats: wild rice, bulrushes, arrow-heads, bur-marigold, pipewort, agalinis, and many more. Our walk is timed to low tide, so the plants will be especially accessible as we explore and study the flora and fauna. We’ll get to see Merrymeeting Bay’s abundance of water birds and raptors, such as ospreys and eagles. We strongly recommend binoculars and footwear you don’t mind getting wet. Students will meet at the parking area of Coffin Wildflower Preserve, Woolwich, Maine; directions will be sent via e-mail.

Ted Elliman has been engaged in botanical work in New England and other northeastern states for more than thirty years. Most recently, he was a botanist and plant ecologist on the staff of the New England Wild Flower Society in Framingham, Massachusetts, where he conducted botanical inventories, natural community surveys, invasive species control programs, and helped publish Wildlfowers of New England.