It is always a special treat to walk through this botanical area. The entire bog area weighs in at 750 acres. A boreal bog with a base of peat, as deep as 10 feet makes this a special place. Several mountain streams flow and seep through here before continuing the journey to the Gauley River. At an elevation of 3400 feet, the bog supports plants more common in Canada than anywhere close to here. It is the southernmost range of several.
A half mile boardwalk leads through just a corner of this huge bog.
Cinnamon Fern looks like it rising out of Skunk Cabbage.
Up close it does not appear cinnamonlike at all.
Here is one of the star attractions, Purple pitcher plant. There are quite a few here if you know what to look for. Despite the purple flower, this plant is rather inconspicuous and hard to spot. Unlucky insects manage to spot it. In the photo below, you can see the insect death chamber. Insects drown in rain water which collects in the tubes. Prey capture is quite inefficient with some studies showing it to capture only 1% of visiting insects.
This guy sneaks across the boardwalk
The extremely tiny Sundew plant is very hard to spot.
Rounding out the boardwalk tour, a wetland pool is home to lots of frogs. A family of ducks made this home as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment