Webb State Park 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 Webb State Park.

---

Island Acreage: 36.0
Owner: DEM
Quadrangle: Hull, MA
Survey Dates: 19 June, 2001; 16(18?) July, 2001; 6 September, 2001; 20 June, 2002, 28 September, 2002.

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 at Webb State Park

Species_Scientific_Name	Species_Common_Name	Family	Date_Observed	Habitat

Download This Dataset

Notes on Habitats and Flora

Old fields and thickets are the predominant community types on the Webb State Park peninsula, the site of a former military installation. The park’s patchwork of old fields, which are in differing stages of succession and comprise different plant associations, have a fairly high diversity of native and non-native herbaceous plants. Webb’s thickets have the shrub association characteristic of the Harbor Islands, including Celastrus orbiculatus, Myrica gale, Lonicera morrowii, Rhus typhina, Rosa multiflora, Toxicodendron radicans.

The park has a distinctive wooded thicket on the east side of Upper Neck Cove. This small community, which may be more correctly classified as a woodland, is dominated by hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) and sassafras (Sassafras albidum). Black cherry (Prunus serotina) and black oak (Quercus velutina) also occur in this dense stand of trees and shrubs. Regrettably, the shrub vegetation in this unusual stand of mostly native trees is as weedy as it it elsewhere on the islands--Berberis thunbergii, Lonicera japonica, Lonicera morrowii, Rhamnus frangula, Rosa multiflora, and a profusion of Toxicodendron radicans—and there is little herbaceous vegetation.

The site has one depressional “ freshwater marsh” in the central part of the island. Phragmites communis and reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) dominate this disturbed, weedy habitat, which was bone dry when visited on July 16. Other plants found in this depression include Eupatorium maculatum, Impatiens capensis, Spiraea latifolia, Spiraea tomentosa, and Teucrium canadense. Goldenrods (Solidago spp.) and other typically upland plants also grow in this “marsh”.

Both sides of the peninsula have long stretches of sandy and stony shoreline, and the south side of Upper Sandy Neck has a fringe of salt marsh. No unusual plants were found in these tidal habitats, but the salt marsh has a robust growth of cordgrasses (Spartina alterniflora and S. patens), black grass (Juncus gerardii), spike grass (Distichlis spicata), sea-lavender (Limonium nashii) and sea-blites (Suaeda linearis and S. maritima).