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Oldest Live Oak at Frederica NPS Photo |
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Vascular Plants at Ft. Frederica
Ft. Frederica is an approximately 200+ acre park most of which is saltmarsh, but includes a variety of plant habitats: large mown areas at the site of a colonial town, adjacent park-like areas of large specimen trees, successional loblolly pine forest, saltmarsh, brackish marsh, small freshwater wetland habitats, swampy forests near the park entrance, and maritime forest and high marsh at the Bloody Marsh unit.
Field
A park-like expanse is maintained surrounding the old fort and town site. Large live oaks, hackberries, Magnolia grandiflora, Citrus ssp, Bumelia, and other plantings spread over mown St. Augustine turf intermixed with a diversity of native and exotic annual and perennial herbs. The open expanse along with the marsh edge is perhaps the most floristically diverse and visually interesting portion of the park since at all seasons a variety of species, herb, shrub, and/or tree, are in flower or fruit.
Live Oak/Magnolia Forest
Around the maintained area is a Live Oak/Magnolia Forest, where live oak and laurel oak are codominants occurring with Magnolia grandiflora and pignut hickory (Carya glabra), in the understory are scattered saw palmetto, wax-myrtle, blueberry (Vaccinium ssp), dogwood, redbud, persimmon and yaupon holly. A variant on this community maintained at the marsh edges includes cabbage palm and red cedar along with Bacharis halmifolia and Bacharis angustifolia, grasses, vines such as Ampelopsis and a variety of other woody and herbaceous perennials.
Pine Succession
South of the fort and east of the park's headquarters, which was originally cleared for agricultural purposes, lies a forested area dominated by loblolly pine with an advanced understory of live oak and water oak, and an understory of Vaccinium, wax myrtle, and an occasional saw palmetto. A wetter variant occurs on either side of the entrance drive dominated by loblolly pine, water oak, sweet gum, yellow poplar, and some water tupelo in the wettest spots with an understory of saw palmetto, gallberry, cinnamon, and netted chain fern.
For the complete Vascular Plant Survey Report go to Natural Resource Documents.
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