#18 Bearberry, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi: This unique as well as form a stand or grove. This plant is uplands where the soil is mildly acidic. The bushes plant is a shrub that grows along the ground. You will important to a huge variety of insects and the grow tall and dense, keeping much of the fruit out of notice some woody stems nearby that are some of vertebrates that eat them. reach of all except birds and people. Generations of the branches of these very old plants. Also called hog Nantucketer’s have been known to keep secret the cranberry or mealy plum, the red fruit ripens in #22 Scrub Oak, Quercus ilicifolia: This plant is an locations of their prized blueberry bushes! Visitors’ Trail Guide autumn and while dry and tasteless to humans it was incredibly tough survivor. It is a shrubby tree that is formerly a favorite food of the large flocks of more knarly scrub than mighty oak. Yet it is perhaps #26 Japanese Black Pine, Pinus thunbergii: These The Linda Loring Nature Foundation is an 86- American golden plovers, Pluvialis dominica, found on mightier than the familiar mainland species as it is able pines, as their name implies, are native to Japan. Able acre preserve for conservation, education and Nantucket in the fall and the extinct Eskimo curlew, to survive in habitats where little else can. A deep tap to grow in very harsh conditions in impoverished Numenius borealis. Tiny pink flowers bloom in April or root resists tearing up by storms and helps the plant sandy soils and extremely salt tolerant, this fast research. The gently sloping, mile-long loop trail May and these are the primary nectar source for the regenerate after fire. When battered by wind and salt growing species was imported by nurseries into the crosses a magnificent coastal sandplain earliest butterfly that emerges-the brown elfin, spray, its growth is mostly sideways. U.S. and has been very popular with landscapers from ecosystem with populations of animals, birds and Callophrys augustinus. New Jersey to Maine along the coastline. Like many rare plants. Enjoy! #23 Vernal Pool: The low spot beyond the post has non-native plants it has few insects which feed on it standing water for part of the year and supports a and is considered invasive on Nantucket. While it #1 Nest Boxes: For cavity nesting species the breeding colony of small tree frogs called spring does provide cover, it does not provide insect food availability of a suitable nesting site is critical. On tree peepers, Pseudacris crucifer. It has served as a nesting for nesting birds. The pines have a short lifespan and and cavity challenged Nantucket it is a severe limiting area for a protected species, the northern harrier, die-off at 25 to 30 years of age. factor. Build them and they will come. By providing Circus cyaneus, which is why we offer no access. nest boxes on the LLNF Property it allows native cavity nesting species, particularly tree swallows, #24 Bayberry, Myrica pensylvanica: This is a stand of Line drawings courtesy of Sharon Hussey. Tachycineta bicolor, and a few Black-capped mostly bayberry which has very dark green waxy Chickadees, Poecile atricapillus, to nest. They feed their covered leaves. The leaves are fragrant when crushed. young insects. They add a lot of activity to the It has hard waxy berries and often grows in dense The mission of The Linda Loring Nature Foundation is Foundation Property from April thru mid-July. thickets in interior dunes and sandplain grasslands. to improve the understanding and appreciation of Although referred to colloquially as "berries", Nantucket’s fragile flora, fauna, and wildlife by #2 Sweet Pepperbush, Clethra alnifolia: This Bearberry, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi botanists call the fruit a "drupe." The fruits which are providing education, information, and support to wetland loving plant is abundant on both sides of the children, educators, researchers, organizations, and comprised of a seed coated in a waxy coating are an trail at this spot. This shrub dominates many wetland #19 Nantucket Shadbush, Amelanchier important fatty food source for tree swallows, individuals. We are dedicated to being stewards of area soil types on the LLNF property. When it nantucketensis: In front of this post is a large stand of a Tachycineta bicolor, and yellow-rumped warblers, the Foundation’s property on Eel Point Road and to flowers, usually in mid-July, the smell is heavenly and low-growing, inconspicuous shrub called Nantucket Setophaga coronata, formerly called myrtle warblers fostering learning that promotes environmental the white flowers brighten the landscape with massive shadbush. When it blooms in late April or early May after the wax myrtle berries they ate, bayberry’s awareness, imparts knowledge of the ecological numbers of flowers on each plant. Attractive to many it is the first plant to do so in its habitat making it former name. relationships of the local environment, and insects and butterflies this native plant is not only stand out for only a couple of weeks in the year. It is engages residents and visitors to Nantucket to sweet to ones sense of smell but to the eyes as well. a slender, gray-barked shrub, also called Juneberry respect, preserve, and conserve the diversity of because of its early ripening fruit which is a favorite of #3 Tick Research: As you look down into the the local gray catbirds, Dumetella carolinensis, and habitats surrounding us. depression to the west you notice a green, plastic, others. device called a 4-poster. This is one of 4 of these This property is a wildlife sanctuary. The trails units nearby, part of an ongoing study to control deer #20 Black Huckleberry, Gaylussacia baccata: This are for walking and the quiet enjoyment of ticks, Ixodes scapularis. It is a white-tailed deer, plant and other hardy species, play a part in the early nature. Please stay on the trails to avoid Odocoileus virginianus, feeder. The deer stick their stages of succession that help transform exposed harming fragile plants. Take only pictures, leave heads down into a bowl and they contact one or subsoil and sand to woodland. This extremely hardy only footprints. more of the posts that have a 9 inch paint roller plant can grow in impoverished and exposed soils treated with the insecticide permethrin. It is applied spreading by rhizomes often forming dense and to the heads and necks of the deer and kills all the dominant stands where it is seemingly the only plant. ticks living on the deer. Results of the study and the Its small purplish fruit is prized for its flavor by Bayberry, Myrica pensylvanica effectiveness of the 4-posters are ongoing. humans and wildlife. Linda Loring Nature Foundation #25 Highbush Blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum: 110 Eel Point Road, PO Box 149, Nantucket, MA The bush to your left as you face the marker is the #4 Osprey, Pandion haliaetus: These highly migratory #21 Wild Black Cherry, Prunus serotina: This is a 02554 bush in question. This hardy plant often grows in raptors are always a thrill to watch. Their nest pole is test to see if you recognize a lone tree separated 508.325.0873 moist border thickets although it can be found in dry an iconic symbol of the LLNF. Their only food is fish from the grove back on the trail. They can go it alone www.llnf.org that they capture live in spectacular plunge-dives. This through early July. A smaller number of painted Callophrys augustinus, is the first butterfly to emerge in #14 White-tailed Deer, Odocoileus virginianus: The site has been the most successful at raising chicks on turtles, Chrysemys picta, and rarely spotted turtles, the spring while the Leonard’s skipper, Hesperia paths and trails you can see all over the LLNF Nantucket for the past 15 years. Most years, but not Clemmys guttata, are seen on the trails. Look for leonardus, is the last to emerge in the fall. Other property, especially from this vantage are the work of always, the adults will successfully fledge 3 young. sandy areas devoid of vegetation. If you are really species like the pearl crescent, Phyciodes tharos, and white-tailed deer. They choose the path of least Both the adults and young migrate to Amazonian lucky you might see the baby turtles emerge from the American copper, Lycaena phlaeas, are multi- resistance to move between feeding and bedding South America departing in early September. The mid to late summer. brooded and occur periodically throughout the down areas creating well-worn trails often devoid of adult birds reappear at the nest pole sometime in late warmer months. vegetation. It is sometimes hard to determine where March for another breeding season. #8 Geologic Formations of Nantucket and the trail goes because the deer trails are so Long Pond: Nantucket was formed by the furthest prominent. #5 North Head of Long Pond: Looking to the reach of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the southeast you are gazing at the North Head of Long Wisconsin Glaciation and shaped by the subsequent #15 Beach Plum, Prunus maritima: These hardy Pond, a brackish body of water with a slight tidal flow, rise in sea level. The low ridge across the northern plants grow best where they have some protection connected to the rest of Long Pond by a culvert section of the island was deposited as a glacial from wind and salt spray but can tolerate harsh under the Madaket Road. It is the best pond on moraine during a period of glacial standstill, a period conditions. An important food plant for many insects Nantucket for observing many species of wintering during which material continued to arrive and was the fruit is also eagerly sought by humans.