The largest park in the Montgomery County park system, Little Bennett Regional Park also possesses the widest variety of plant life in the system. A total of 249 different types of native trees, shrubs, ferns, grasses and other forms of vegetation are found in the Park.

In this section of our website we provide information about the many different forms of vegetation found in the Park. As you navigate around this section, you will encounter comprehensive lists of each major plant type. Each individual plant form on these lists is linked to a website or fact sheet that provides photos and descriptions of that plant.

In addition to native plants, 20 different non-native vegetative species are found in Little Bennett. Fortunately, non-native plants have not yet established themselves as firmly or widely in Little Bennett as they have in several down-county parks. However, increasingly they threaten to displace the Park's native plants -- especially in unmown meadows, wetlands, forest edges and other areas where sunlight can reach ground level. If you would like to help Friends of Little Bennett begin to address the growing non-native invasive plant problem in the Park, simply contact us.

We hope to gradually expand this area of our website to provide more of an interpretive focus to it. This would include more information about conditions most conducive to different types of plants (e.g. wetlands, hillsides, sunny, shady, plants often found in association etc.) as well as representative areas of the Park where different types of plants can be found. Our intention is to help foster understanding, enjoyment and appreciation for the natural world found in the Park.

The Friends of Little Bennett wish to thank Carole Bergmann, Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission's Forest Ecologist, for providing these lists and helping us improve public awareness about vegetation in Little Bennett Park.