Travilah Barrens

Description

Also referred to as "Piney Barrens", Travilah represents the southernmost serpentine vegetative community in the mid-Atlantic. Across the Potomac, serpentine does not reappear until Buck Creek and Burks Mountain in North Carolina and Georgia, which have comparatively distinct and very rich serpentine flora, including endemics. Travilah Barrens lacks significant grassland openings, but has maintained a scrub-oak dominated forest perhaps since the beginning of the twentieth century.

Mining

Part of the Travilah serpentine outcrop is being worked by the Rockville Crushed Stone Quarry.

Visiting

The unquarried part of Travilah Barrens is preserved as the Serpentine Barrens Conservation Park by Montgomery County, Maryland.