Wells Reserve, Maine

Wells Reserve, Maine

Flora (Plant Life)

The fields of the Reserve support early stages of successional plant communities. Open spaces, adjacent to the Reserve's woods have a mixture of shrubs and young trees. Forests provide cover for a variety of species - snags and older trees are essential for cavity nesting species. Upland fields and forests have been classified into four major categories: mowed fields, old fields, oak-pine forest, and mixed second growth forests. Prior to European settlement and subsequent farming of the area, oak-pine forest covered the Reserve lands. Since then, forests have been cleared for farming, timber and fuel needs. With the decline of farming, fields have once again succeeded toward forest communities. The succession from field to forest is displayed through the variety of old fields existing on the Reserve.

Adjacent to the Reserve's mowed fields are two "old fields" which have succeeded to shrubs such as barberry, honeysuckle, bayberry and pasture rose. Both barberry and honeysuckle are introduced species. Apple and hawthorn trees line the field and hedge rows. South of the Merriland River are patches of white pine and poplar forests. Both are relatively young and contain herbs and grasses associated with old fields.

A relatively mature oak-pine forest community is becoming established in several forest stands on the dry, sandy soil. Red maple is also a major component of most of the oak-pine stands in moister areas. Other tree species occur in the canopy and subcanopy but do not attain dominance. At most sites, heath shrubs dominate the understory vegetation with blueberries being most abundant. Mixed second growth forests also exist on the Reserve.

The majority of the Reserve's lands are wetlands. Three major wetland sub-habitats have been identified on the Reserve: salt marshes, red maple swamps, flood plains and shrub swamps. In the red maple swamp, the red maple is the dominant tree with alder and winterberry holly being the dominant shrub species within the community. An herbaceous layer is also well-developed, which contains a variety of dominating sedges, ferns and wetland herbs. A total of 82 different shrubs have been identified on the Reserve site. (See the Species List for a complete listing of the Reserve's known plant species.)