adog40's Journal

I have visited this Lake several times but never through the lens of a Bryologist. I have to say it is the mossyest and most diverse Liverwort population of any place I have been where I was actually interested. I came here to look at the bog because it too has more species of Sphagnum than any other Bog in Washington. According to
TABLE 4.2 Verified Sphagnum species, some Northwest localities*
Wetland Species present
BBC 45/King County, WA S. mendocinum
S. palustre
Devil's Lake Bog/Jefferson County, WA
S. angustifolium
S. palustre
S. capillifollium
S. fuscum
S. mendocinium
S. squarrosum
JC66 Shadow Lake Bog/King County, WA S. capillifolium
LCR 14/King County, WA S. pacificum
Little Lake/Snohomish County, WA S. warnstorfii
S. papillosum
Sleeper Bog/Whidbey Island, WA S. pacificum

• Verified by Dr. Dale Vitt, University of Southern Illinois, June 2000
  The weather was overcast and late, as you walk in to the Lake you pass through a hall of mosses. I saw a lot of Hylocomium splendens, Isothecium sp.,Plagiothecium undulatum, Polyrichum.. Tons and tons of species. We did not get a chance to go to the bog and check out the Sphagnum, maybe on my next visit.

Our outing today to the Shadow Lake Bog gave me a chance to see a real bog for the first time as well as try to figure out how to tell the mosses apart. We had a dramatic day as far as the weather was concerned;rain, hail, sunshine, then more rain and hail.
I guess memorable weather is great for 1st time experiences. What blew my mind about the Sphagnum is how many colors you can see looking across the hummucks.So many shades of green highlighted by pinks and reds. Some things I learned was the the PH of the bogs are just about the same as a tomato and sadly few of these pristine habitats are left.
Some classmates and I questioned how the Sphagnum, (which is made up of dead cells under the water's surface) if they can activate cellular metabolic functions in these cells. Some things that we talked about were that since Sphagnum is absorbing nutrients from the water and if there was no real cellular action happening would hydrogen ions exchanges happen through diffusion?(which leads to phenolic compounds that give the bog it's acidic nature) Another thing I guess I thought about was the nature of their leaves and if through wicking action they absorb water and nutrients.
We had many questions but visiting this super acidic habitat was a very special experience. Mucking through rusty brown waters and bouncing along the terrain looking for gemmae balls, goblin's gold or just a place to pretend that we could live under the Hylocomium splendens using the feathery leaves for shelter from the rain allowed me to escape into this enchanted place. Looking forward to learning more about Sphagnum.-A