The Clifton Institute

The Clifton Institute The Clifton Institute, Inc. a 501 (c)(3) organization located two miles north of Warrenton, VA.

Our field station encompasses over 900 aces of diverse habitats including upland forest, open field, wetland, vernal pool, stream, pond and small lake habitats, providing a rich resource for indigenous plant and wildlife studies. This invaluable resources have been placed in a conservation easement so that the land is preserved from development for the benefit of Piedmont wildlife.

Today!! We'll be here rain or shine from 11 am - 2 pm. Hope to see you there!
09/05/2026

Today!! We'll be here rain or shine from 11 am - 2 pm. Hope to see you there!

Tomorrow!! 6712 Blantyre Road, Warrenton, Virginia. We'll have plugs, 4-inch pots, and gallon pots as well as a limited ...
09/04/2026

Tomorrow!! 6712 Blantyre Road, Warrenton, Virginia. We'll have plugs, 4-inch pots, and gallon pots as well as a limited amount of seed mix. Pricing ranges from $5-20 per plant depending on size. All native species, local ecotypes, hand collected and grown from seed by Clifton staff and volunteers!

We'll be joined by Hill House Farm and Nursery and Stover Mill Farm:

Stover Mill Farm Plant list:
Herbaceous Plants-
White Vervain (Verbena urticifolia)
Allegheny Monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens)
Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata)
Virginia Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum)
Gray Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis)
Lyre-leaved Sage (Salvia lyrata)
Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba)
New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)
Field Thistle (Cirsium discolor)
Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)
Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)
Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)
Maryland Senna (Senna marilandica)
Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia)
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
Shrubs-
Common Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
Trees-
Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)

Alex Yu is a recent high school graduate who has been interning with us since the spring and he's helping us better unde...
09/03/2026

Alex Yu is a recent high school graduate who has been interning with us since the spring and he's helping us better understand Clifton's biodiversity.

Alex first learned about the Clifton Institute when Co-Director Bert Harris added identifications to Alex’s fungi observations on iNaturalist. Alex reached out to Bert to ask for more resources, and Bert invited him to the lichen identification workshop he was hosting at Clifton. “I came to the workshop and realized this was an amazing place with a lot of cool opportunities,” Alex said.

"We are analyzing data from iNaturalist to predict how many species there are here that we haven’t found yet,” Alex said. “I'm also working on a paper that will compare the plant pathogen floras of the Clifton Institute and Oakton High School. My days are part field work, walking a few trails and looking for weird organisms, and part analyzing data and writing manuscripts. I'm also sending my specimens off to collaborators in North Carolina, Indiana, and Germany for further analysis."

Alex, who will join the freshman class at Cornell University in the fall, became interested in nature four years ago. It started as raising house plants, then progressed to learning about native plants. Then he encountered a gall (an unusual growth on a plant caused by an insect, fungus, bacterium, or virus) for the first time and entered the world of plant diseases and other microscopic mysteries of nature.

“I really enjoy microscopy because I like seeing details I can’t see with my naked eye,” Alex explained. “One of my favorite finds was Downy Mildew on Forget-me-Nots. I’d read about them a lot, but it took a long time of looking at every Forget-me-Not I saw to find the mildew.”

“I love working with nature and working with data,” he said, “so I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do in the future, but it will be something that involves those two things!”

We’ve been thrilled to have Alex here. His hard work, passion, and attention to detail are unmatched. He teaches us new things constantly and we can’t wait to watch him grow as a scientist. Thank you Alex!!

Come see us this Saturday at the field station! (6712 Blantyre Road, Warrenton, Virginia) for our fall native plant sale...
09/02/2026

Come see us this Saturday at the field station! (6712 Blantyre Road, Warrenton, Virginia) for our fall native plant sale! We have wildflowers, grasses, trees, and more, all grown from local seeds and ready to add pollinators, wildlife, and beauty to your garden or restoration project. We'll be joined by other local native plant nurseries like and Stover Mill Farms. We look forward to seeing you soon!

This year, our Eastern Box turtle research project entered an exciting new stage: locating and monitoring turtle nests! ...
09/01/2026

This year, our Eastern Box turtle research project entered an exciting new stage: locating and monitoring turtle nests! To do so, we’ve been very grateful for the assistance of Christine Petraskova, a veterinary technician from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

Christine has been bringing an x-ray machine out to the field so that we can tell if a turtle is carrying eggs. Katie Brighton and Brookelyn Powell, veterinary students from Washburn University, also assisted by bringing an ultrasound out as an alternative method of scanning for eggs. If a turtle is gravid, our technicians attach a small bobbin of thread to her shell so they can follow her trail and find her nest site.

The main goal is to see what types of habitat Box Turtles use for nesting and to find out what is predating Box Turtle eggs. Because we are keeping track of each gravid turtle and nest we find, we can also track movement patterns of the nesting females, learn specific timing for nesting, and record incubation times.

Once the thread is attached to a turtle, Carley and other researchers check the turtles every day and weigh them. If their weight drops dramatically then they assume the turtle laid eggs and start looking for the nest. A part of the thread will often get buried when the turtle makes her nest, so Carley follows the trail until she finds the buried section. Then she takes data on what the nest looks like and sets up a trail camera to record the nest’s progress.

Carley and the turtle team have located 16 nests across our research sites! It’s too early in the study to draw any conclusions, but we have some interesting early indications about clutch sizes, nesting behavior, preferred nesting habitat, and common predators and we're excited to start analyzing the data.

Most of the nests should hatch between August and October, and the team will continue tracking until the turtles hunker down for the winter. Stay tuned for more!

08/29/2026

Eleanor spends some quality time with sumac! Here's her process, what she learned, and how she translated a complex plant to a striking piece of art.

If you want your own nature journaling adventure, join us for a nature journaling retreat on October 17: https://cliftoninstitute.org/event/nature-journaling-retreat/

From our friends at Stover Mill Farm! "Hi All,Next week is the Fall Native Plant Sale at The Clifton Institute. We will ...
08/28/2026

From our friends at Stover Mill Farm!

"Hi All,
Next week is the Fall Native Plant Sale at The Clifton Institute. We will be there as well! Below are some of the plants they will have available, and here is what we will be bringing:
Herbaceous Plants:
White Vervain (Verbena urticifolia)
Allegheny Monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens)
Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata)
Virginia Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum)
Gray Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis)
Lyre-leaved Sage (Salvia lyrata)
Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba)
New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)
Field Thistle (Cirsium discolor)
Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)
Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)
Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)
Maryland Senna (Senna marilandica)
Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia)
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
Shrubs:
Common Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
Trees:
Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)
Hope to see you there!"

Piedmont grasslands are the most diverse plant communities in the state of Virginia. They are also home to declining bir...
08/28/2026

Piedmont grasslands are the most diverse plant communities in the state of Virginia. They are also home to declining birds and insects and a number of rare plants. Join us to learn all about these special habitats, their history, and what we’re doing to protect them.

Grasslands in our region require frequent fires, mowing, or grazing to prevent them from turning into forests. Therefore there is an active debate about how grasslands were maintained historically, how extensive they were, and how long they have been present in northern Virginia. This will be an outdoor event that will take place at one of Virginia’s most diverse grasslands!

We will meet at Clifton and carpool to two nearby sites. More detailed instructions will be emailed to participants prior to the event!

Register: https://cliftoninstitute.org/event/remnant-prairie-tour/

(Warrenton, VA)9 days away!! We'll be joined by our friends at and Stover Mill Farm with lots and lots of native plants...
08/27/2026

(Warrenton, VA)
9 days away!! We'll be joined by our friends at and Stover Mill Farm with lots and lots of native plants!

In addition to being native, all plants sold at the sale are local ecotypes, which means they're grown from locally-sourced seeds and are especially adapted to our exact local ecosystem, giving them the best chance of supporting pollinators, birds, and other wildlife.

Staff will be available to give advice and answer questions. We can't wait to see you!

Full details: cliftoninstitute.org/event/fall-native-plant-sale-4/

Address

6712 Blantyre Road
Warrenton, VA
20187

Telephone

+15403413651

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