Bog-Smacked

I thought that today I’d show a few more pictures from when I was up in northern Wisconsin last week. These’ll show more of the bog I walked through.

It was an absolute delight on the feet.

Before hitting the bog, on the higher ground, there were two very common club mosses. The first is (probably) Running Ground Pine (Lycopodium clavatum).

Running Ground Pine (click for larger version)

The second is Ground Cedar (Diphasiastrum complanatum).

Ground Cedar

These plants all reproduce by spores, and are thus considered “primitive”. Here’s a shot of one of the ground cedar’s spore head:

Ground Cedar with Spore Head

Despite their names, ground pine is not related to pine trees at all, and ground cedar is not related to cedar trees at all. It is just that the needle arrangement on ground pine is reminiscent of pine needles (rather bushy), and the needle arrangement on ground cedar is reminiscent of cedar needles (rather flat).

As I mentioned before, there were also tamaracks in this bog. Again, tamaracks are one of the few conifers that lose their leaves (or needles) over the winter.

Tamarack Trees in Bog

The other main conifer that does this is the bald cypress. Aside from a completely different needle structure, tamaracks turn that bright yellow while bald cypresses turn a golden brown.

Here you can see a close-up of that needle structure. The needles come out of a single location in a starburst pattern.

Close-Up of Tamarack Needles

In the tamarack picture above, you can also see what is on the ground. I’m pretty sure the conifers are black spruce, which can tolerate the wet conditions. I have no idea what that low leafy plant is, but it is poking up above some other kind of moss:

Moss Underfoot

Yes, that’s my foot on the right side of the picture.

This bog was a real delight to walk through. It wasn’t sopping wet, but merely slightly damp. The mosses made it like walking on sponges. Of course, you can only really appreciate that by walking on it barefoot.

Finally, in some places the mosses had turned red:

Red Moss

(Sorry about the focus — I have no idea what my camera focused on there.)

If anybody knows what that is, feel free to speak up.