More than 500 kinds of wildflowers at Sheffield site - Berkshire Eagle Online

• By Jessica Willis, Berkshire Eagle Staff

  Article Last Updated: 05/06/2008 03:21:35 AM EDT

• SHEFFIELD — Springtime at Bartholomew’s Cobble means a riot of wildflowers in bloom: Red-and-white trillium. Deep magenta columbine. Shiny yellow trout lilies. The delicate blue of blunt-lobed hepatica.

• More than 500 kinds of wildflowers bloom on the 329-acre Trustees of Reservations property on Weatogue Road in Sheffield’s Ashley Falls section.

  The floral diversity is due in part to Bartholomew’s Cobble’s unusual geologic makeup. The soil is alkaline-rich, or “sweet,” as Wendell put it, because of the limestone in the area. And the cobbles themselves, two mammoth outcroppings of limestone, marble and quartzite that thrust out of the bedrock 500 million years ago, support a vast amount of sweet soil-loving ferns, trees, flowers and plants.

• in addition, Bartholomew’s Cobble, named for the farmer who owned the land before the Trustees purchased it in 1949, straddles the line between

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  northern and southern climate zones

• To help battle the invasives, the Cobble recently received a landowner incentive grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wendell said.

  The Cobble will be holding a “Garlic Mustard Jamboree” on May 14, and volunteers are invited to help rip out the invasive — but edible — pest. Wendell also will be holding a “Wild Edibles Extravaganza” on May 24, when he will show participants how to eat from the Cobble’s bounty.

  For information about all of Bartholomew’s Cobble programs, call (413) 229-8600 or visit www.thetrustees.org.