A Lovely Day in a Black-Spruce Bog, Part 2: Youth, Adulthood, Old Age, and Death | Alger County, Michigan, USA
In the same locale as shown in Part 1 of this set. But now I'm standing on the mat well into the muskeg.
All stages of the bog-habitat version of the Picea mariana (Black Spruce) life cycle are shown here—from full-foliaged saplings in the foreground to scragglier adults and dead, naked poles farther back.
Black Spruces have certain adaptations that allow them to eke out an existence in the highly acidic substrate. For one thing, their root systems grow in a webbed pattern reminiscent of the interlaced strings of a tennis racket. This affords them just about the best stabilization a tall-growing conifer can have on a thin, floating mat of sphagnum.
Still, the rather depauperate aspect of the mature trees points out that this is a starved environment. That's not because the peaty soil lacks the necessary nutrients, but because the low pH level—in other words, high acidity—prevents those nutrients from being absorbed easily by plant roots.
Next we'll turn to some of the amazing plants that grow below them.
To see the other photos and descriptions of this series, wade into my my Lovely Day in a Black-Spruce Bog album.
A Lovely Day in a Black-Spruce Bog, Part 2: Youth, Adulthood, Old Age, and Death | Alger County, Michigan, USA
In the same locale as shown in Part 1 of this set. But now I'm standing on the mat well into the muskeg.
All stages of the bog-habitat version of the Picea mariana (Black Spruce) life cycle are shown here—from full-foliaged saplings in the foreground to scragglier adults and dead, naked poles farther back.
Black Spruces have certain adaptations that allow them to eke out an existence in the highly acidic substrate. For one thing, their root systems grow in a webbed pattern reminiscent of the interlaced strings of a tennis racket. This affords them just about the best stabilization a tall-growing conifer can have on a thin, floating mat of sphagnum.
Still, the rather depauperate aspect of the mature trees points out that this is a starved environment. That's not because the peaty soil lacks the necessary nutrients, but because the low pH level—in other words, high acidity—prevents those nutrients from being absorbed easily by plant roots.
Next we'll turn to some of the amazing plants that grow below them.
To see the other photos and descriptions of this series, wade into my my Lovely Day in a Black-Spruce Bog album.