This learning Monday was the greatest one yet! We went to two bogs with Robert Wesley, Plantation's resident botanist and naturalist, and got to check out all the rare and unique plants found therein. The first was Landers Corners bog in Cortland County. The bog formed in a glacial kettle. A kettle is formed by a boulder of ice leaving a depression in the soil before it melts. Bogs by there very nature are formed on higher ground generally, and have small watersheds, which allows them to become and stay so acidic. First I'll give you and overview shot of the bog.

The large leaved plants in the foreground are Golden Club or Orontium aquaticum a plant in the family Araceae (a family which includes Skunk Cabbage, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and a wide variety of houseplants). This population is the only one in the Finger Laker regions and is one of, if not the, furthest western population. Here's a close up of the full plant and immature fruits.

Next we have an example of one of the dwarf shrubs that make up the bog community, Vaccinium macrocarpon the Large Cranberry in flower. These moisture loving acid dependent plants are common in bogs but not really anywhere else and create the edible cranberries we Americans so enjoy.

Always an exciting sight for me Sarracenia purperea the Northern Pitcher Plant. These bizarre beauties are also common in bogs but nowhere else. They are carnivorous, unable to glean enough nitrogen from the poor bog soils these plants evolved modified leaves. These leaves emit sweet smelling droplets around their rim to attract insects. Any insects who venture further inside however slip on the downward pointing hair coating the inner part of the leaf and drown in pools of liquid stored in the leafs reservoir. The plant then leaches nitrogen from the decomposing insects in its pools. Here is a shot of the leaves and the flower.

Another carnivorous plant found in the bogs is Drosera or Sundew. There were two species of Sundew found int he bogs we visited Drosera spatulata the Spatulate-leaved Sundew and Drosera rotundifolia the Round-leaved Sundew. They shared the bog D. rotundifloia preferring more shaded sites and D. spatulata grows in sunnier openings. Both catch insects using the sticky hairs on their leaves. The leaves then curl around the unfortunate insect and dissolve it.

Another dwarf shrub Gaultheria hispidula or Creeping Snowberry grows at the edges of the bog up on some of the relatively drier hummocks. This ericaceous relative of blueberries has an edible, white berry which tastes like wintergreen!