post and photos by Donna Short, Chapter member and volunteer
Anne O’C. Albrecht Nature Playscape located in Forest Park
On Wednesday evening Roman Fox, Horticulture Superintendent of Forest Park Forever, provided an overview of the purpose, development, and management of the Nature Playscape. He then led the group on a very informative tour.
Saturday morning Lesley Hoffarth, P.E., President & Executive Director of Forest Park Forever provided an introduction and background information on the Playscape shown here (on left) with Marsha Gebhardt, Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter President.
The chapter donated $100 to Forest Park Forever, to thank them for providing this natural landscape and play area in the city and for hosting our October Garden Gathering!
Here is an overview from the Playscape website where there is additional information including maps and a press release:
Funded by donors to Forest Park Forever and completed in partnership with the City of St. Louis, the Anne O’C. Albrecht Nature Playscape is a 17-acre experiential play space with natural landscapes that include mostly native species – 300 trees, 700 shrubs and 40,000 perennials. Featuring nine distinct activity areas, the free destination includes sand play areas, willow tunnels, stump steppers, boulders and rocks, hand water pumps and much more. The goal: Encourage visitors — especially kids — to connect with nature as they engage their senses as they explore, discover and learn.
Below is only a brief description of the area and does not cover all the play areas and the variety of plants and trees. You’ll want to take time to explore it!
On our visit we saw that the Playscape was popular with families as well as individuals taking a stroll.
The path beckons and we begin our stroll.
Almost immediately we spotted a Monarch chrysalis!
Navitars were frequently used along the path for a variety of reasons
but primarily to avoid obstructing the view
In some situations, the height of the native plants such as Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii)
provided a natural screen from the roadway.
The Upland Prairie playscape shown below with a variety of boulders and stump steppers.
The young forest provides shade and a variety of trees and fall color.
American Beauty Berry (Callicarpa americana) along the path.
The Wetland area was surrounded by rain garden plants.
You can imagine this is a favorite on a warm summer day.
We took a shortcut through the Meadow area and saw a variety of plants:
Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)
Aromatic Aster(Symphyotrichum oblongifolium)
New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)
Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepsis)
Our next stop was the Sensory Garden with plants to appeal to the senses throughout the year. Here we saw a variety of pods and seeds. The garden includes Slender Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium, not pictured), which is known for the strong scent, and Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium, below) is known for the bristly seed heads and and spiky foliage.
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) pods were bursting scattering milkweed seeds shown right!
The black Blue Wild Indigo (Baptisia australis) pods provide a natural rattle.
We hope that you’ll visit the Playscape in all seasons to discover more native plants and features!
