Last updated: August 30, 2021
Article
Langlee 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 Langlee Island.
Data Notes:
* = introduced species
(v) = voucher specimen
(p) = photograph
Due to formatting restrictions, species scientific names are not italicized in the data table.
* = introduced species
(v) = voucher specimen
(p) = photograph
Due to formatting restrictions, species scientific names are not italicized in the data table.
| Species_Scientific_Name | Species_Common_Name | Family | Date_Observed | Habitat |
|---|
Notes on Habitats and Flora
Langlee Island’s most prominent feature is the puddingstone cliff faces on the south side of the island. These rocks provide habitat for Carolina crane’s-bill (Geranium carolinianum var. confertiflorum), a watch-listed species in Massachusetts first documented on Langlee by Dale Levering (1978), who observed four plants here. This population has expanded, and there are now several hundred Carolina crane’s-bill plants scattered on the south-facing puddingstone rocks. Many other species grow on exposed outcrops around the island’s upland perimeter.
The upland part of the island is densely vegetated with shrub thickets and shaded woodlands. For its small size, Langlee has an unusually high diversity of plant species, both native and naturalized. Most of the thickets found on Langlee have the mix of species typical of the Harbor Islands (Rhus typhina, Lonicera morrowii, Myrica gale, Rosa multiflora), but a dry red cedar woodland on outcrops on the island’s west side has a more unusual association of black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata) and running shadbush (Amelanchier stolonifera). The shaded woodlands in the central part of the island have both native (Acer rubrum, Quercus velutina) and non-native tree species (Quercus robur, Acer platanoides, and Ailanthus altissima) forming the canopy.
Langlee’s shoreline contains patches of sandy and pebbly beach as well as rocks in the spray zone. In 1984, Bruce Sorrie documented a population of 50 American sea-blite (Suaeda calceoliformis) plants on the beach on the east side of the island. American sea-blite is a species of special concern in Masschusetts. Sorrie noted on his field form that his ID was “tentative...needs verification.”
Most of the sea-blites I observed on the beach, rocks, and mud flat on the east side of the island appeared to be either tall seablite (Suaeda linearis) or saltmarsh seablite (Suaeda maritima). I collected several sea-blite specimens here and will be examining them to see if any may be American sea-blite.