One trait of Orange Jewelweed Herbaceous Vegetation is its short longevity on the landscape: driftwood piles move. You could be the first to spot a dense patch of orange jewelweed growing on a new pile of flotsam this summer! Frequent flooding rearranges the sediment that supports the plants, so the location of this community can shift regularly. On the interactive map of Harpers Ferry NHP, this natural community is grouped with four other similar communities, under the name “Herbaceous Depositional Bar Complex.” These five communities are mapped together because individually they may exist in patches smaller than the scale used for this map and/or they may occur together in mosaic fashion.

Learn more about the Herbaceous Depositional Bar Complex.

In the late 1990s, a very large stand of Orange Jewelweed Herbaceous Vegetation occupied the Virginia shore of the Potomac River just north of the U.S. 340 bridge below Loudoun Heights. This might be a good place to look for it today.

The map below highlights a different place to see an example of the Herbaceous Depositional Bar Complex along the Virginius Island Trail. It may not be an example of Orange Jewelweed Herbaceous Vegetation.

Map tip: To find this location, go to the interactive map of Harpers Ferry NHP and search for "good places."