Post by rhillier on Jul 13, 2008 16:06:07 GMT
This past Friday, my wife, daughter and I had the pleasure of meeting our Swiss friend, Olivier, in Wiarton to go poking around the fens of the Bruce Peninsula. We were hoping to meet a couple of other enthusiasts from Niagara, but they were unable to make it due to unfortunate circumstances.
We had perfect weather... cool enough to keep the bugs quiet with a nice gentle breeze.
We started out by going to the "standard" fens in Oliphant and Petrel Point where we saw S. purpurea, D. linearis, D. rotundifolia, U. cornuta and P. vulgaris. My cousin, Bill, has a cottage right across from the Petrel Point fen, so we went over and saw the plants growing on his property. Now you have to realize, that Bill is not a plant person - he chose this area for its relative seclusion so he and his wife can get away from the justle and bustle that is their normal lives through the week and relax here with family and friends.
Anyway, I showed Olivier the areas on his property where the CP grow. I've seen S. purpurea with tiny 1.5" pitchers flowering, while growing in dry, hard clayish soil. The previous day, they had a huge amount of rain, so everything was nice and damp. We could also see how Bill had kept things, including the CP, neatly mowed with his riding mower.
Here were some P. vulgaris growing in the lawn.
And a bit closer.
They also grew in amongst the rocks where exposed soil was present.
Here are a couple of photos of U. cornuta that were in the fens.
And some D. linearis
We then drove up along the coat of the Lake Huron side and checked out some fens that I had never been to before. On a previous visit a couple of years prior, Olivier had discovered a fen that had a population of the cross between D. rotundifolia and D. linearis growing in it. On this trip, he was kind enough to show me this fen. It's a bit tricky to get to, but when you get there, it's awesome... the best site on the Bruce that I've ever seen to date. Not only were all of the native species present, some in abundance, but there, in all its glory, was the cross that I mentioned above.
Here are a couple of pictures that I took of the cross.
Olivier originally thought that there were only a few of these plants here, but in looking around, we found a lot more than was expected. This cross is sterile and can only be propagated by seed made by crossing the two species, or vegetatively from an existing plant. Given the fact that we found absolutely none of this cross in other fens where both parents were present, the number of them in this location was somewhat surprising. This cross also seems to be fairly stable with no real varance between the plants here. In my opinion, they are much more robust than either of the parent species, and if they could propagate by seed, would probably take over the area.
This fen was very beautiful, isolated and peaceful. Much of it was like a shallow, alkaline lake with the raised areas being full of CP. Here are a couple of photos of the area to give you an idea of what it looks like.
There were lots of S. purpurea growing here with lots of variance between the plants (no heterophylla though
)
This one was a little more typical, but had a nice form to it
This one had a nice red colouration over the entire plant.
And this one had a nice brilliant red colouration that contrasted nicely with the bright green on the rest of the hood.
As we were going through the bush, we found this neat ball of moss growing isolated in the ground. I don't know what kind it was, but my first thought was VRAEV would love this one.
As we entered the fen, we were greeted by this fella - I believe that it's an Eastern Milk Snake who was out looking for his daily dose of Frog McNuggets.
Now I know that virtually everyone here frowns on this sort of thing, but it should be noted here that we almost introduced a new and dangerous species into the fen.
It's called CPEnthusiastus rickhillierianum.
I'll explain... We were crossing the open area of the fen between "islands." Olivier had no problem crossing it, and there were some old ATV tracks that ran through this stuff, so I figured it would hold me... This did not happen. My left foot broke through the supporting layer and when I tried to free it, my right foot broke through and I started to slowly sink. Subsequent efforts to free myself from a vertical base only made it worse, and I was now knee deep, so I handed my camera to Olivier and said that I was going to have to get dirty to extricate myself from this mess. So I bent down at my waist and got my weight more supported on my forearms and hands and off of my feet. This allowed me to S-L-O-W-L-Y free my legs from the muck by crawling out... and I didn't even lose my sandals in the ordeal.
Was I ever a sight to behold... Olivier got a few good photos of this fun - hopefully he'll get them to me or post them in this forum for all to see.
And nope, I don't propagate from cuttings either
But I get the hint... I need to lose a few pounds (like around 120 or 130)...
As I write this, Olivier is off to Quebec to visit another friend there who will take him to some of the nicest bogs around. Simply put, he's just a fantastic person and if you ever get an opportunity to enjoy this gentleman's company and travel with him, take it. I can only say that I wish I had a week to take him to some of the more northerly places that I know.
>>> Rick <<<
We had perfect weather... cool enough to keep the bugs quiet with a nice gentle breeze.
We started out by going to the "standard" fens in Oliphant and Petrel Point where we saw S. purpurea, D. linearis, D. rotundifolia, U. cornuta and P. vulgaris. My cousin, Bill, has a cottage right across from the Petrel Point fen, so we went over and saw the plants growing on his property. Now you have to realize, that Bill is not a plant person - he chose this area for its relative seclusion so he and his wife can get away from the justle and bustle that is their normal lives through the week and relax here with family and friends.
Anyway, I showed Olivier the areas on his property where the CP grow. I've seen S. purpurea with tiny 1.5" pitchers flowering, while growing in dry, hard clayish soil. The previous day, they had a huge amount of rain, so everything was nice and damp. We could also see how Bill had kept things, including the CP, neatly mowed with his riding mower.
Here were some P. vulgaris growing in the lawn.
And a bit closer.
They also grew in amongst the rocks where exposed soil was present.
Here are a couple of photos of U. cornuta that were in the fens.
And some D. linearis
We then drove up along the coat of the Lake Huron side and checked out some fens that I had never been to before. On a previous visit a couple of years prior, Olivier had discovered a fen that had a population of the cross between D. rotundifolia and D. linearis growing in it. On this trip, he was kind enough to show me this fen. It's a bit tricky to get to, but when you get there, it's awesome... the best site on the Bruce that I've ever seen to date. Not only were all of the native species present, some in abundance, but there, in all its glory, was the cross that I mentioned above.
Here are a couple of pictures that I took of the cross.
Olivier originally thought that there were only a few of these plants here, but in looking around, we found a lot more than was expected. This cross is sterile and can only be propagated by seed made by crossing the two species, or vegetatively from an existing plant. Given the fact that we found absolutely none of this cross in other fens where both parents were present, the number of them in this location was somewhat surprising. This cross also seems to be fairly stable with no real varance between the plants here. In my opinion, they are much more robust than either of the parent species, and if they could propagate by seed, would probably take over the area.
This fen was very beautiful, isolated and peaceful. Much of it was like a shallow, alkaline lake with the raised areas being full of CP. Here are a couple of photos of the area to give you an idea of what it looks like.
There were lots of S. purpurea growing here with lots of variance between the plants (no heterophylla though
)This one was a little more typical, but had a nice form to it
This one had a nice red colouration over the entire plant.
And this one had a nice brilliant red colouration that contrasted nicely with the bright green on the rest of the hood.
As we were going through the bush, we found this neat ball of moss growing isolated in the ground. I don't know what kind it was, but my first thought was VRAEV would love this one.
As we entered the fen, we were greeted by this fella - I believe that it's an Eastern Milk Snake who was out looking for his daily dose of Frog McNuggets.
Now I know that virtually everyone here frowns on this sort of thing, but it should be noted here that we almost introduced a new and dangerous species into the fen.
It's called CPEnthusiastus rickhillierianum.
I'll explain... We were crossing the open area of the fen between "islands." Olivier had no problem crossing it, and there were some old ATV tracks that ran through this stuff, so I figured it would hold me... This did not happen. My left foot broke through the supporting layer and when I tried to free it, my right foot broke through and I started to slowly sink. Subsequent efforts to free myself from a vertical base only made it worse, and I was now knee deep, so I handed my camera to Olivier and said that I was going to have to get dirty to extricate myself from this mess. So I bent down at my waist and got my weight more supported on my forearms and hands and off of my feet. This allowed me to S-L-O-W-L-Y free my legs from the muck by crawling out... and I didn't even lose my sandals in the ordeal.
Was I ever a sight to behold... Olivier got a few good photos of this fun - hopefully he'll get them to me or post them in this forum for all to see.
And nope, I don't propagate from cuttings either
But I get the hint... I need to lose a few pounds (like around 120 or 130)...
As I write this, Olivier is off to Quebec to visit another friend there who will take him to some of the nicest bogs around. Simply put, he's just a fantastic person and if you ever get an opportunity to enjoy this gentleman's company and travel with him, take it. I can only say that I wish I had a week to take him to some of the more northerly places that I know.
>>> Rick <<<
