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The heath family is a large family of shrubby species, including rhododendrons, heathers, blueberries and wintergreen, which are suited to acidic habitats and can have leathery or needle-like leaves. The bog rosemary is a characteristic plant of northern bogs, with tough narrow evergreen leaves and tiny delicate pink urn-shaped flowers in clusters.
<-- Andromeda polifolia or bog rosemary is not related to the cooking herb, although it looks similar (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
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Cranberries are perhaps the most useful bog plant for humans and other animals who eat its tart red berries. Two species are found in our bogs, Vaccinium macrocarpon, the large cranberry, and Vaccinium oxycoccos, the small cranberry. Both have nodding pink flowers with turned-back petals that are said to resemble the head of a crane.
<-- Cranberry leaves and flowers (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
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The tart red berries of the cranberry, used in sauces and juice drinks, are commercially grown in artificial bogs.
<-- Cranberry fruit in sphagnum moss (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
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Labrador tea is a shrubby plant with clusters of white flowers and leathery leaves that are woolly brown underneath and fragrant when crushed. The leaves were used by Native Americans to brew tea, and were a popular tea substitute during the American Revolution.
<-- Ledum groenlandicum or Labrador tea (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
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Leatherleaf, which gets its name from its tough evergreen leaves, is the dominant shrub in most bogs. Its white bell-shaped flowers hang down along the stem.
<-- Chamaedaphne calyculata or leatherleaf (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
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Bog laurel is another shrubby bog plant with lovely bright pink flowers. All parts of the plant are said to be toxic.
<-- Kalmia polifolia or bog laurel (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
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The "Virtual Bog Walk" is made possible by a Lake Superior Coastal Wetland Conservation Education Grant from the Michigan Coastal Management Program, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.
Photographs ©Scot Stewart and ©MooseWood Nature Center
MooseWood Nature Center, P.O. Box 773, Marquette, MI 49855
info@moosewood.org (906) 228-6250
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