Virginia Native Plant Society October Plant Walk at Ivy Creek
Welcome to the October edition of the monthly self-guided plant walks sponsored by the Jefferson Chapter of the Native Plant Society and the Ivy Creek Foundation. This month’s leader is Phil Stokes, who will be talking about trees naturally occurring on the Paved, School and Red trails. We marked each unique tree he speaks about (some species are seen more than once and we haven’t marked each of these) with a numbered, orange flag so that they are easy to locate. We have also taken a photograph so that you can check to see if you have found the correct plant. The photographs are useful as this tour will be posted for a two week period and some of the trees may have shed all their leaves by October 31 which is the last day the tour will be available. But do note that Phil identifies these trees by characteristics beyond simply leaf structure.
There are many ways to take this walk.
- We have provided a Plant List which has numbered the trees to correspond with the flags you find along the trail. Print out this list and bring along a field guide to tell you about the tree as you find it.
- If you want to walk at Ivy Creek with Phil’s narrative, you can download the free Izi travel app from your Play Store or iTunes onto your phone and it will guide you by GPS along the tour providing Phil’s narration with accompanying plant photograph. It is helpful to download the walk before you come to ICNA, so you are not reliant on cellphone service. You will also need to have your location turned on. To access all the photos on the app, just touch the box of images and scroll through them as you walk. Start this walk at the head of the Paved trail at the far end of the ICNA parking lot.
- If you prefer not to download the app or you prefer to do the walk from home, you can follow the tour on your home computer from this link: https://izi.travel/en/ba30- october-vnps-tree-walk-at-ivy-creek-natural-area/en. You can “walk” with Phil, hearing his narration, following the map of the walk and seeing the photographs. To scroll through all the photographs on your computer, use the red dots below the image that begins each section of the walk.
We would love your feedback after you experience this walk—in whichever version you choose. Please feel free to contact catherine@ivycreekfoundation.org.