Deer 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 Deer Island.

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Island Acreage: 203.5
Owner: MWRA
Rare Plants: Aristida tuberculosa (SC; 1877)
Quadrangle: Hull, MA
Survey Dates: 25 June, 2001.

Data Notes:
* = introduced species
(v) = voucher specimen
(p) = photograph

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

Plant information on Deer Island

Species_Scientific_Name	Species_Common_Name	Family	Date_Observed	Habitat

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Notes on Habitats and Flora

Deer Island has virtually no natural habitats. The native and naturalized plants found on Deer Island occupy waste sites, cracks in pavement, roadsides, sides of buildings, and edges of recently landscaped areas. This list does not include Deer Island’s recently landscaped plants, although a number of the leguminous plants which have naturalized here most likely were planted to stabilize soils and restore soil fertility. One more survey conducted in August or early September would certainly document more late-blooming native and naturalized species. The seabeach needlegrass (Aristida tuberculosa) population, not documented on Deer Island since 1877, is almost certainly extirpated from the island.