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Charles River Wetlands Trail: a Guide
The 750m (0.5mi) loop trail winds through woods between the Charles
River and Quinobequin Road in Newton. On the south side of the road,
about 600m (0.4mi) north of Rt. 9, a trail post visible from the road stands
next to a small parking area, marking a patch of milkweed. A similar post
stands in the woods about 30m (100ft) to the left (east), at the beginning of
the trail.
The markers along the trail point out
some of the interesting natural features of
this area. To learn more, use your phone
to read the coded trail markers, or visit the
trail’s web site (http://qbqtrail.org/).
What are wetlands?
Wetlands are the areas between a
source of water, like a river, and the higher
ground next to it. They are places where
the soil is saturated with water most of
the time. Bogs, marshes, and swamps
are examples of wetlands. Wetlands can
be identified by the plants growing here.
Some plants, such as maple and oak trees,
can grow in either wetlands or drier upMarker at the trailhead.
lands. Others, such as purple loosestrife
and cattail, grow only in wetlands, and their presence is a wetland indicator.
Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)
In front of you is a tree that appears to have oval leaves about 15cm
(6in) long. Is it deciduous? (Does it lose its leaves in the fall?) No, this
tree has needles further up. It is a white pine (Pinus strobus) with poison ivy
growing up its trunk. If you see a plant with leaves growing in bunches of 3,
it may be poison ivy. Don’t touch it! Most people are or can become allergic
to poison ivy, even if they have no other allergies. Poison ivy can cause a
painful, intensely itchy rash in people. All parts of the plant, including the
roots, stems, and leaves, can cause this rash, whether dead or alive.
Leaves of three – let it be!!
Poison ivy grows many ways. It can
grow as short as only a few inches high
along the ground, or it can climb 5m (15ft)
high by clinging to a tree. Its berry-like
drupes, though poisonous to us, are food
for birds, deer and other animals living in
this area, especially in winter.
White pines are the tallest trees in eastern North America. Their needles
grow in bunches of five, unlike those of other native pines. In colonial times,
the largest ones were marked as the “king’s trees” and used for ships’ masts.
Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)
Purple loosestrife is a pretty flowering plant that is highly invasive. It was
brought to the US from Europe and Asia
in the 1800s and has spread rapidly. It
is crowding out native wetland plants like
cattails. It flowers continuously from June
to September. One plant can produce 3
Loosestrife at the water’s edge.
million seeds in one year alone. If you try to get rid of it by pulling it up, it
can grow new plants from the roots left in the water.
Purple loosestrife has three different kinds of flowers, called morphs.
The morphs differ by the length of their stamens. All the flowers on one
plant are of the same morph. Flowers of one morph can only be pollinated by
one of the other two morphs. This means the plants have to cross-pollinate
with other plants. Pollination is done by bees and butterflies.
Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is an unusual low-growing plant that
may be found nearby on the right side of the trail in spring and early summer.
Indian pipe is white, because it contains no chlorophyll. It is a parasite that
gets its energy from fungi that grow underground. The fungi themselves are
parasites feeding off of trees.
Maples
You should be able to find red maples (Acer rubrum), sugar maples (Acer
saccharum), and Norway maples (Acer platanoides) along this trail.
Maple leaves grow opposite each other
on the twigs. They are palmate (they resemble a hand with lobes mimicking fingers). The leaves can have varying numbers of lobes depending on which kind of
tree it is. On red maples there are only
3 main lobes. Both sugar and Norway
maples have 5 clearly separate lobes. The
outside edge of the leaves is serrated. Red
Red maple leaves.
maple leaves are smaller than those of sugar and Norway maples, only growing to about 5-10cm (2-4in). Sugar and Norway maple leaves grow to 20cm
(8in) long and look a lot alike. Sugar maple leaves are about as wide as
the are long. Norway maple leaves, however, are wider than they are long.
Maple seeds are about 1-5cm (0.4-2in) long, and usually grow in pairs. They
look like they have a wing growing out the side. When a seed falls off the
tree, the wing flutters in the wind and helps the seed fall farther away from
the parent tree.
Red maples and sugar maples are native to North America. Norway
maples come from Europe, and they are invasive. They are gradually crowding out native maple trees.
Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum)
Blueberries grow all along the Eastern coast of the United States and Canada.
They are one of America’s favorite fruits.
Blueberries have a white, bell shaped
flower. Berries are green in June and July
and ripen to a dark purple in August. The
blueberries you see in a grocery store are
different than the ones you find in nature.
Wild blueberries are much smaller and the
Blueberries in mid-July.
plants much shorter than cultivated ones.
The bushes on this trail will only grow to about 30cm (1ft) tall. They don’t
mind having damp roots, so they love to grow in wetlands.
Blueberries are food for many birds, such as bluebirds, blackbirds, and
robins. Deer, squirrels, and mice eat them. But bears are nature’s true blueberry lovers. A bear will travel 15 miles in search of blueberries, then eat
nothing else as long as there are berries to be found. But don’t worry, there
are no bears on this trail!
Oaks
Oak trees are deciduous, like maples.
The leaves grow alternately, not directly
opposite each other on the twigs. They are
about 12-22cm (5-9in) long and 7-12cm
(3-5in) wide. The leaves are lobed, with
7-11 lobes on each leaf. Red oaks (Quercus rubra) have leaves with pointed lobes.
White oaks (Quercus alba) have slightly
smaller leaves with rounded lobes. Both
red and white oak trees can be found along
this trail. They are native to North America.
Oak trees produce acorns, a favorite
food for squirrels. Squirrels collect acorns
for the winter and sometimes dig holes
and store them in the ground. Most winTwin oaks.
ters, they don’t even eat half of what they
collected. The result is that squirrels are responsible for planting baby oak
trees. The twin trunk oak in front of you may well be the result of two acorns
being buried side by side, and the resulting two trees grew so close to each
other that they grew together. Acorns are also eaten by deer, rabbits, and
many birds, from tiny nuthatches to large turkeys. One oak tree can produce
over 2,000 acorns in a year.
Maple-leaf Viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium)
Maple-leaf viburnum has leaves that
closely resemble those of a red maple tree.
But maple-leaf viburnum is a shrub, not a
tree. It only grows to about 180cm (6ft)
tall. It is native to the U.S., and is a member of the honeysuckle family. Viburnum
leaves are 5-12cm (2-5in) wide and have 3
lobes. They are slightly hairy. They turn
Viburnum drupes in September.
purplish-pink in the fall. Its flowers are
small and white and grow in clusters. In the summer, viburnum produces
small green berry-like drupes, which ripen to dark purple in the fall. The
drupes are slightly flattened. The fruit is eaten by deer, mice, rabbits, skunks,
and a variety of birds. Viburnum stalks grow straight and long. They were
sometimes used by prehistoric people to make arrow shafts. Another name
for this plant is arrow-wood.
Touch-me-not (Impatiens)
Touch-me-not is also known as jewelweed. It is a common flowering plant in
Massachusetts. They flower through the
summer and early fall. The flowers are
about 2cm (1in) long, and shaped like a
little horn. The ones on the plants here are
orange, but they come in many other colors.
Touch-me-not is a natural antidote for
poison ivy. If you come in contact with
Touch-me-not seed pods (center).
poison ivy, take a leaf from a touch-menot plant and rub it over the place where you touched the poison ivy. If
you do this right away, the poison ivy rash will be lessened, or perhaps not
appear at all. But don’t touch poison ivy just to try this out!
The plant is called touch-me-not because of its seed pods. When the
pods are ripe, they “explode” if you squeeze them, sending their seeds out a
meter or so away from the plant.
A short distance ahead, the trail crosses a small stream. Look for footprints of deer and other animals nearby.
Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
Jack-in-the-Pulpit is often confused
with poison ivy, because its leaves grow in
groups of 3. But unlike poison ivy, it isn’t
a vine and it doesn’t grow up the sides of
trees. Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a wetland indicator plant, because it only grows in damp
soil. If you are out walking this trail in
late April to early June, you may be lucky
enough to see Jack-in-the-Pulpit in bloom.
Look carefully in the center, where the
leaf stems start. A yellow-green flower
grows out of the middle of the plant. Part
of the flower grows up and flops over, giving the plant its “pulpit” name, because it
Jack-in-the-Pulpit in May.
resembles a pulpit in a church. Please do not touch it; the flower is delicate.
Later in the summer, the plant may have a cluster of green berries, which
ripen to a bright red in late summer.
About 10m (30ft) further, turn left at the fork, then left again after about
5m (15ft) more.
Floodplain
A floodplain is land near a river. It may be covered with water after a
heavy rain. Floodplains are dry most of the time, and often go years without
being flooded. The land is nearly flat, but it slopes gently down to the river
on your left. To the right, the land rises steeply from the floodplain up to the
road.
During a rain, excess water runs off the higher land and onto the floodplain. Instead of going directly into the river, the floodplain holds the water
like a sponge, slowly letting it seep into the ground. It acts as a buffer and
reduces erosion. Sediments settle on the floodplain instead of entering the
river directly. The floodplain filters out impurities that would otherwise pollute the river.
The trail crosses the stream again.
Burning bush (Euonymus alatus)
Burning bush, also called winged euonymous, is a plant native to Asia. It has
beautiful red leaves in the fall, which is
how it got its name. The leaves are oval,
about 2-5cm (1-3in) long. It has corklike ridges along its stems, giving them a
Berries in summer.
“winged” appearance.
It was introduced into this country because it is a very pretty bush to
have in your garden. Unfortunately for wetlands, burning bush is a highly
invasive plant that grows well in damp soil and in the shade, where it crowds
out native wetland plants.
Puddingstone
Puddingstone looks like a person took
a bunch of small, smooth rocks, mixed
them up with some concrete, then let it
all harden together. But the rock you see
here was not made by any person. Puddingstone is a conglomerate rock, consisting of several kinds of rock mixed together
Exposed puddingstone.
and cemented by a natural matrix.
There are several kinds of puddingstone. The kind we have in Newton is
called Roxbury conglomerate. It forms the bedrock underlying most of our
city of Newton and nearby Boston. It is named for the part of Boston called
Roxbury, because that is where early settlers saw impressive examples of it.
Roxbury puddingstone was created about 580 million years ago. Glaciers
moved the cobblestones, tumbling them around and around until they were
smooth and rounded. These pebbles, mostly granite and quartz, settled in
sand. For millions of years the pebbles and sand were pressed together until
the mixture became stone.
This stone was used in the construction of walls and houses in Newton and Boston and you can even see it in the foundations of some Boston
churches.
Just to your left is a tree with turkey tail fungus (Trametes versicolor)
growing up its trunk. Turkey tail grows on dead or dying trees, often oak
trees. It was given this name because it looks like the tail of a turkey in the
way it fans out, and because its colors are often similar to the bird’s feather
colors. Turkey tail grows in rings, often one ring every year. It can be brown,
grey, or white, and sometimes even orange.
Common Greenbriar (Smilax rotundifolia)
Varieties of greenbriar are found in
most temperate and tropical regions of the
world. Common greenbriar is native to
the eastern U.S., where it grows as long,
thorny vines, with tendrils that it wraps
around other plants so it can form dense
thickets. Its shiny leaves are broad and
A patch of greenbriar.
heart shaped, 5-12cm (2-5in) long. It is
also called the “devil’s wrapping yarn” because of the way it grows and
because of its thorns.
Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
Hemlock trees grow to a very old age - they can be up to 800 years old!
They have short needles about 1.5cm (0.6in) long. The needles lie flat in
two rows. Hemlocks have small cones about 2.5cm (1in) long. These trees
like shade. Hemlock wood is commonly used to make railroad ties, because
it holds the spikes well. Deer like to eat the needles.
The tree is threatened by an insect
called the woolly adelgid. These bugs
suck the sap from the tree. If they are
on a tree, you can find their egg sacks
on the bottom side of the needles. The
egg sacks look like little puffs of cotton
or wool. The bugs were accidentally introduced into North America in 1924 from
Hemlock branches.
East Asia, and have been slowly killing off
hemlock trees in the southern Appalachian Mountains, working their way
north. It is feared that the woolly adelgid may eventually kill off all of the
beautiful hemlock trees in Massachusetts.
Ferns
Marsh fern frond.
Ferns are often found in wetlands and
forests. They were around long before dinosaurs - fossils of ferns have been found
from 360 million years ago. The long
leaves on ferns are called fronds. In the
early spring, new fronds unroll from tight
spirals called fiddleheads. Ferns do not
have flowers. They reproduce by making
tiny spores, which are released from sporangia that look like small dots on the undersides of some of the fronds.
There are two types of ferns on this
trail. Marsh ferns (Thelypteris palustris), with many-lobed leaflets, are found
mostly on the higher section. Sensitive
ferns (Onoclea sensibilis), with finger-like
leaflets, grow closer to the water.
Milkweed (Asclepia)
Milkweed plants grow to 1-2m (3-6ft)
tall. They are often found along roadsides.
If you break a stem of the plant, a milky
white sap comes out. Their seeds grow
in pods about 2.5cm (1in) wide and 10cm
(4in) long. In the fall, when the seeds are
Monarchs like milkweed.
ripe, the outside of the pod dries out and
it splits open. Each of the seeds has a small tuft which when blown by the
wind can carry the seed far from the parent plant.
Milkweed plants are a favorite food for Monarch butterflies (Danaus
plexippus). Monarchs lay their eggs on the plants and when the caterpillars hatch, they eat the milkweed leaves. The caterpillars develop a nasty
flavor from eating so much milkweed. This makes birds dislike them and
avoid eating them. Monarch colonies migrate a long distance every year,
all the way from Mexico to Canada. Many butterflies were nearly wiped
out because people used a pesticide called DDT to try to control insects that
ate their crops. Monarchs didn’t eat people’s crops, but they were sprayed
when farmers tried to kill other insects. DDT use is banned in our country,
so butterflies are making a comeback. Unfortunately, DDT is not banned in
Mexico. Farmers in Mexico use it fairly often, sometimes wiping out whole
colonies of monarchs by accident.
About the Charles River Wetlands Trail
This trail was created as a Girl Scout Gold project,
to show the importance of wetlands. If you liked walking
the trail, I hope it inspires you to go out and do something
in your community for the environment.
Learn more at
http://qbqtrail.org/
Special thanks to all the volunteers who helped make
this trail possible. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Melissa