A Scarecrow tending his fields
Posted in Central Ohio
Tagged "Licking County", Dawes Arboretum, farming, rust, scarecrows
I decided to write this after visiting Jackson Bog State Nature Preserve and reading all the informative signs there… except they weren’t all that informative for me because I didn’t know my swamps from my bogs. So when I came home I decided to learn a few wetland basics.
Let’s start with the easy stuff. In North America a wetland that has trees growing in it is called a swamp. That’s why Dawes Arboretum referred to the following grove of trees as “Cypress Swamp”.
A swamp
Posted in Nature
Tagged "Jackson Bog", "nature profile", "Stark County", bog, Dawes Arboretum, fen, Frogs, habitats, marsh, moss, swamp, vocabulary, wetland
I always associated the bald-cypress pictured above with the bayous of the deep south. Imagine my surprise to learn that we have some growing in Central Ohio. It turns out that the mature bald-cypress (Taxodium distichum) is actually cold tolerant. You may be wondering why we aren’t seeing them all over the place. Well, they can’t reproduce naturally in this climate because the immature seedlings are susceptible to ice damage. But if you nurture the little seedlings in a greenhouse, then transplant them outdoors when they’re older, they’ll survive and flourish here. Now I’m thinking of transplanting one into a wet spot in our backyard.
Bob Platt
Deb Platt
ODNR State Wildlife News
