Kingdom Pond natural area

Kingdom Ave. bet. Hylan Blvd. and Jansen St.

Kingdom Pond Park is a 4-acre park in the Southeast Annadale neighborhood in Staten Island, surrounded by forested public land that is contiguous with Arbutus Woods Park, and is part of the Arbutus Creek Watershed. The rolling topography of the park offers a diversity of wetland and upland habitats within a small park. The southern corner of the park supports a shallow pond that is skirted by mature trees such as black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica), red maple (Acer rubrum) and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). Green frogs (Lithobates clemitans) and spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) can be seen leaping into the water at the first rustle of leaves from a hikers’ footsteps. As you climb uphill, the forests transition to upland full of a diversity of oak trees including white oak (Quercus alba), chestnut oak (Quercus montana), black oak (Quercus velutina), red oak (Querus rubra), with acorns littering the forest floor during mast years and highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) and blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) providing berries for a variety of birds.