New Texas Barrens

Hello, friends of the Serpentine Barrens! Thanks for joining this project to contribute your observations and identifications. Since my most recent batch of observations came in part from a workday at New Texas, I thought I'd give a description of that barrens and some of the species I've observed on it.

The hamlet of New Texas is located at the junction of Black Barren Road and Route 222 in southern Lancaster County. New Texas Barrens lies along Black Barren Road a short distance to the northwest. (Black Barren, named for its owner, Dr. James Black of Lancaster, lay to the south of New Texas Barrens near where Black Barren Road ends on Pilottown Road.) Between New Texas Barrens and Rock Springs Barrens, the next major serpentine barrens to the south, was the farm of Joel Jackson Carter. Carter was an enthusiastic botanist, and coauthored a flora of Lancaster County with J.K. Small; his herbarium is now in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Carter's collections provide excellent documentation of the serpentine flora of the area in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

The more fertile areas around New Texas Barrens are farmed, and part of the barrens themselves were grazed until the early 1980s. This may have played a role in the health of the barrens; although prescribed fire (to the best of my knowledge) has never occurred at New Texas, it still contains many large, healthy grasslands on which vines and trees have largely not encroached. For over 30 years, the barrens have been owned by the Hannum family; the FSLSB and its predecessors have been clearing grasslands at New Texas for 20 years, with their gracious permission.

I took a number of pictures during our workday on September 17th, in some of the southern grasslands near Happy Hollow Road. What appeared to be an old prospect pit, filled with water, was harboring a small stand of common reed. Not much of a threat on the dry barrens, though. There was quite a bit of orange-grass in the grassland, which I don't recall seeing on other barrens. This is actually a tiny-flowered St. John's-Wort, often found in gravelly or sandy habitats. Tony Davis helpfully demonstrated for us where it gets its name—a faint citrus odor from the broken plant. Whorled milkwort is, if not frequent, to be found on most barrens, but often dwarfed, inconspicuous, and requires diligent search. And serpentine aster is a commonplace on the State Line Barrens; globally rare, locally abundant!

Another grassland held large patches of prairie dropseed, a disjunct prairie species known in Pennsylvania only from barrens. The cespitose (tufted) habit is distinctive (but don't confuse it with Deschampsia caespitosa in wet serpentine areas!), and the fruiting heads have a powerful smell of new-mown hay when ripe! (Thanks to Emily Tinalli for showing me this a few years ago.) While hauling cut brush and trees to a brush pile beyond the grassland edge, I almost fell over an eastern box turtle heading down the bank towards a stream. The conservation prospects for the species are rather grim, given their low reproductive success, so it's a slightly melancholy pleasure to see them. I also caught a picture of a variegated fritillary; pearl crescents, fritillaries, common buckeyes, and sulphurs are all frequently observed on barrens in the early fall. Purple gerardia, still blooming, is one of the buckeye's food plants.

If you'd like to see some of the New Texas Barrens yourself, the best way to do it is as part of one of our working parties. Our next stewardship day there is on November 17; contact the FSLSB if you'd like to join us to help preserve habitat and see this high-quality serpentine barrens.

Coming topics: the southern pine beetle and what's happening at Nottingham, walking fern on serpentine, the importance of New Jersey tea and wild false indigo, and more!

Posted on October 9, 2017 12:09 AM by choess choess

Comments

No comments yet.

Add a Comment

Sign In or Sign Up to add comments