The Middletown Nature Gardens is located off Randolph Road in Middletown, Connecticut

Middletown, Connecticut

Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...

. In 1995, the city of Middletown, CT purchased the 18 acres (72,843.5 m²) of land and dedicated it open space. This piece of land serves as a natural habitat to many plants and animals. There are many trails to walk about surrounded by an array of diverse trees and shrubs. Some of the types of trees and shrubs include red cedar

Juniperus virginiana

Juniperus virginiana is a species of juniper native to eastern North America, from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, east of the Great Plains...

, flowering dogwood

Flowering Dogwood

Cornus florida is a species of dogwood native to eastern North America, from southern Maine west to southern Ontario, Illinois, and eastern Kansas, and south to northern Florida and eastern Texas, with a disjunct population in Nuevo León and Veracruz in eastern Mexico.-Classification:The flowering...

, highbush blueberries, white pine

Eastern White Pine

Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, is a large pine native to eastern North America, occurring from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to the northern edge of Georgia.It is occasionally known as simply white pine,...

, and speckled alder. The main trail is a 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) loop. Mulched side trails, which branch off the main trail, add another 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) to walk. Community volunteers maintain the park. They have erected many bluebird boxes and bat houses to house some of the natural wildlife of the park. There are also vernal pools, which are habitats for salamanders and wood frogs in the southeast corner of the park. There is even a 200 year old sugar maple

Sugar Maple

Acer saccharum is a species of maple native to the hardwood forests of northeastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario, and south to Georgia and Texas...

, which is called the “bee tree,” in which a large colony of bees has made it their home.