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Pine Hill Drive to Marlborough Woods Bridge
Looking now at the vegetation types along the track their origin becomes
clear. The section to the Marlborough Woods Bridge was cut through
woodland. This is especially the case on the higher north side where there
is a currently dense growth of oak and red maple coppice. This side was
brush cut about four years ago and the stumps have sent up very vigorous
sprouts which now makes the area (1981) almost impenetrable. It seems most
sensible to assume that at the time the railway was put through, this area
was woodland with its herb flora intact. The old stump sprout clusters
attest to coppicing at intervals to prevent the growth of tall trees. There
are, however, mature oaks on the property behind which is called
appropriately enough, 'The Oaks' and was the former Stanfield property.
These and other oaks in the region are relics of the original Marlborough
Woods and were obviously thought worth preserving when the other trees were
cut down.
On the south side there is a greater proportion of indian pear and red
maple in the coppice and this side was presumably reduced to base rock by
the process of cutting the railway, and the trees represent seeding
establishment since.
Along this section may be found some of the slow-growing and woodland
dependent herbs which are unable to colonise fields., These are mayflower
(Epigaea repens), moccasin-flower (Cypripedium acaule) spotted coral-root
(Corallorhiza maculata) and indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora). These are the
rare plants of the railway and readers should make a point of not digging
any of them up or even picking a single flower. It is a pleasure to find
such things within the boundaries of a modern city and they should be left
alone and admired in situ. Some of these are abundant elsewhere in the
Province where there is no harm in picking a few, but right here in the
City they are rare and should be left strictly alone. Also among the bushes
is the grass Oryzopsis asperifolia , another relic of open woodland.
Also in this section is a narrow strip of woodland which is public
property and gives access to the Northwest Arm. The City maintains the area
and has followed a practice of keeping down the bushes, especially
coniferous ones.
Marlborough Woods Bridge to South Street
This section was presumably a series of fields and gardens at the time
the railway was put through. It consists of grassy and rocky areas being
progressively invaded by early succession bushes and trees. At irregular
intervals scrub is cut down, as it is all along the railway. Thus the area
is maintained in the early stages of plant succession which has the effect
of encouraging, among others, the growth of blackberries and raspberry and
make this strip on of the prime berry-picking places in the city. The
blackberries appear to be a complex mixture of the native species with the
two extreme sizes - the robust, upright Rubus allegheniensis with its
large, excellent fruit and the tiny, creeping Rubus hispidus with its
shiny, evergreen leaves - easily recognised, but including also several of
the intermediate arching forms which we have lumped under the convenient
but possibly incorrect title of 'Rubus canadensis'. The raspberries appear
to be garden remains of the European raspberry.
Al1 along this and the other segments is a fringe of garden plants
resulting from the piles of rubbish thrown out from the gardens of adjacent
houses. Some are recent but many have spread and have obviously been around
many, many years.
Already noted is the old hop vine by the substation mixing with virginia
creeper. By Inglis Street is musk mallow and halfway between Oakland and
South is an old specimen of the Manitoba maple or box elder which differs
from most, maples in having divided leaves looking for all the like an ash.
The Japanese weed has a certain magnificence with its thick shoots and
white flowers and as already mentioned dates from the time when gardens
were larger and people needed some giant herbs to fill in the odd corner.
In addition to the abundant wild rose are rare plants of the European
dog rose and the Japanese multi-flora rose, both of which probably
originated as rootstock of imported garden roses. In addition, just off the
railway property at the Marlborough Woods bridge were the sweet briar and a
single tall-growing, old garden rose, possibly the damask. These may have
been eliminated by the recent spate of housebuilding in the area.
Lovers' Walk (South to Coburg)
The path is along the southern edge of the railway and is notable for
the number of escaped garden plants growing alongside it. Lily-of-the-valley, periwinkle and ground ivy have crept through the hedges of gardens
as they have elsewhere but sweet cicely, with its highly divided leaves
smelling of aniseed, is found only along this section. Sweet cicely is an
ancient pot-herb brought over from Europe along with other umbellifers such
as caraway, goutweed and carrot.
The Horsefield (Conrose Park)
The railway itself is fenced off but the footpath continues on the north
side of the Coburg Road bridge across a grassy area which varies from rough
uncut land with a few trees to a large central mown field. The flora is
largely composed of European pasture grasses and herbs. The reason for the
preponderance of non-native species is because they evolved to withstand
trampling and cutting, in contrast to the native herbs which inhabit
woodlands or cliffs but are eliminated by heavy human use of an area.
Plants which can withstand damage are called ruderals , those which
withstand harsh conditions but not physical damage are called stress
tolerators.
This is a recent ecological classfication of plants by Grime; his third
category is that of competitors which includes plants which maximise leaf
area and the amount of carbon fixed by photosynthesis.
Herbs on the Horsefield include the common grasses : bent, kentucky
bluegrass, annual bluegrass, red fescue, timothy, cocksfoot, couch and
others including the native poverty grass and ticklegrass. In addition are
clovers, fa11 and spring dandelions, mouse-ear hawkweed, knapweed, mi1foil,
creeping buttercup, stitchwort, mouse-ear chickweed, knotgrass and greater
plantains, the list is not exhaustive.
Quinpool to Chebucto
The section from Jubilee to Quinpool is inaccessible hence our last
section includes the two park areas of Flinn Park on the north and the
Quinpool Road park on the south.
