We sometimes think that native plants have to be purchased from special growers or laboriously grown from seed, planted into perfect locations, and carefully nurtured. But native plants often show up in places where they were not planted, and we are finding them on the trail! In some cases plants that we did put in on purpose are producing seed and spreading that way. But we also find native species that we did not plant, and likely were not planted on purpose by anyone. It is exciting to know that even though the land along the trail has been disturbed so many times, there must still be some native plant seeds lying dormant in the soil. It is very likely that you can also find some of these native plants on your property. If you want to keep them, all you need to do is let them grow. Free native plants!

One of the challenges with this is that we have to be able to recognize the native plants so as not to weed them out! To help in recognizing these plants, we have have put signs by a few examples on the trail. Each sign has a QR code that goes to this page, and from there you can click on the appropriate link below for more specific information. All the signs are "downtrail" from the Barmouth trailhead; along the creek. You can also see all these plants by clicking on their names, which are listed below. Enjoy! And don't hesitate to email fochtsteward@gmail.com with any questions or comments.