South Beach Wetlands

Qunitard St., Pearsall St., Frank Capodanno Blvd.

South Beach Wetlands take their name from the surrounding community of South Beach and comprise roughly 5 acres adjacent to Ocean Breeze Park on the northeast shoreline of Staten Island. The area is marshy, surrounded by patchy sandy uplands and emergent, forested, and scrub-shrub freshwater wetlands. Trees and shrubs in the area include the black willow (Salix nigra), eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), gray birch (Betula populifolia), northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica), winged sumac (Rhus copallina), and pussy willow (Salix discolor).

Among the herbs and smaller plants to be found are the bushy goldenrod (Euthamia tenuifolia), gerardia (Agalinis tenuifolia), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), dogbane (Apocynum cannbinum), nodding lady's tresses (Spiranthes cernua), boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), scouring rush (Equisetum hymenale), weeping lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula), the overabundant phragmites (Phragmites australis), and globe flatsedge (Cyperus echinata).