LOCALadk Magazine

Summer 2016 LOCALadk Magazine 28 LOCALadk cans, and are still used as lashings to make birch bark canoes. The roots run far from the little trees to get food and nutri- ents, and if kept wet, can be split down to string-size to lash the bark together. Witches' brooms can be found in most bogs. A witches' broom looks like a bristly broom, and is found in a small branch or the top of a tree. It is caused by the para- sitic dwarf mistletoe and the black spruce commonly serves as its host. In its initial stages, it looks like a red bud on the branch and may go unnoticed. Many carnivorous plants have evolved as a result of the low pH and lack of nutrients. The round and spatulate-leaved sundew and the pitcher plant eat bugs above the bog mat. The yellow horned bladderwort catches bugs in the soil and water below the mat. Other flowering plants include buckbean, small cranberry, cotton grass, three-leaved Solomon's seal, creeping snowberry, and yellow-eyed grass. The many orchids found in bogs include white fringed orchid, grass pink, rose pogonia, pink, yellow and showy lady's slippers, southern twayblade and Arethusa, also known as Dragon's Mouth. Many small flowering shrubs growing on the bog mat include sweet gale, leatherleaf, Labrador tea, blueberry, bog rose- mary, pale laurel and sheep laurel. All of these plants have evolved to conserve water as they only use rain water and not the water their roots are in. Labrador Tea for example, has curved shiny leaves with hairs, which conserve water for the plant. Their roots are mostly submerged, as bogs were previously open bodies of water, but are now covered with 6-24 inches of bog mat. The bog is like a desert: when the sun shines, it gets much hotter than the surrounding woods, which are shaded by the trees. And in winter, the bog gets much colder, as there is no protection. In a winter without snow cov- er, the pitcher plants freeze back and have to start growing new plants from their roots. In wet years or flooding caused by beavers, many bog plants are under water for the en- tire summer, but begin growing when the water recedes. This high water spreads the orchid seeds, which are like pepper, as well as seeds of other plants, to far reaches of the bog. The most frequented bogs have trails, boardwalks, or both, which give visitors a true sense of being out on the bog. 1. Spring Pond Bog is the best place to see a spruce grouse dusting in one of the dirt access roads. A few years ago, I was birding, looking for orchids and taking pictures. Erika Bailey

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