Lackawanna State Park Vegetation Inventory

Lackawanna State Park is located at the northern Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania where it serves an important role in providing public access to fishing, boating, and other outdoor recreation for residents of the Wyoming Valley. Set in a region dominated by agricultural uses and scattered rural residences, the park consists of areas of successional old fields and young forests interlaced with stonewalls and other evidence of past uses. Mature forest patches, located primarily on steep, rocky sites along stream valleys, are of the hemlock, northern hardwood community type. Total diversity of vascular plants found in the park stands at 458 species, of which 25% (114 species) are non-native. Two plants classified by the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory, ginseng and dotted watermeal, are present. The successional nature of much of the park's land has allowed several non-native shrubs, most notably common buckthorn, glossy buckthorn, multiflora rose, and several shrub honeysuckles to become very abundant.