Seeps & Bogs

A steep seep on Hwy. 49 - 6/21/19

Last week we explored a few seeps and bogs. Several were local, others were up north in the Plumas National Forest. Most of them were thriving, but one was heavily impacted by grazing. They were all fascinating!

Seeps

Wikipedia states: "A seep or flush is a moist or wet place where water, usually groundwater, reaches the earth's surface from an underground aquifer."  

There's a steep seep (above photo) right off of Highway 49 that is always noticeably green and blooming long before and way after other local slopes.  I've been watching it for several years.  This year I finally hiked/climbed up it and was astounded by what I found!  It was jammed packed with blooming plants, including Seep-spring Monkey Flower, Elegant Brodiaea, Round-toothed Ookow, Keckiella, Skullcap, Mock Orange, wild onion, Globe Gilia, and Soap Root!  There were lots of insects feeding on the flowers, including Hairstreak Butterflies, Variable Checkerspot Butterflies, Annaphila Moths, beetles and bees!  The ground was moist and squishy with moss!  I've gone back several times and have been delighted with this unique ecosystem!  Here are some of the beauties I saw!

Hairstreak on wild onion - Variable Checkerspot Butterfly on Globe Gilia

unknown species on Allium sp. - Euphydryas chalcedona on Gilia capitata

California Skullcap -  Keckiella

Scutellaria californica - Keckiella breviflora

Seep-spring Monkey Flower - Harvest Brodiaea

Mimulus guttatus - Brodiaea elegans

Annaphila Moth - Long-horned Beetle 

Annaphila lithosina - Judolia instabilis

on 

White Brodiaea - Triteleia hyacinthina

Bog Orchid - Stream Orchid - Sierra Rein Orchid

Plantathera sparsiflora - Epipactis gigantea - Plantathera leucostachys

Orchids

Orchids are commonly found in wet seeps and bogs.  Although I didn't find any orchids in the seep mentioned above, there is another seep alongside Highway 49 that is filled with thousands of Stream Orchids, and many Sierra Rein Orchids!  I stop by to take pictures every year. I also found a green Bog Orchid (left photo) in a bog near Harris Meadow!  I've never seen one of these before! How exciting!

Pitcher Plants in Butterfly Valley - Darlingtonia californica

Bogs 

The Forest Service states:  "A bog is a freshwater wetland of soft, spongy ground consisting mainly of partially decayed plant matter called peat. Bogs are generally found in cool, northern climates. All bogs take hundreds or thousands of years to develop. A bog is formed when a lake slowly fills with plant debris. Sphagnum moss, as well as other plants, grow out from the lake's edge. The vegetation eventually covers the lake's entire surface. Plants decay slowly in bogs, because flooding prevents a healthy flow of oxygen from the atmosphere. Bog soils are oxygen and nutrient-poor, and are much more acidic than other soils." 

We visited two different bogs this past week. On Friday we visited Butterfly Valley in Plumas National Forest.  The Forest Service states:  "Butterfly Valley was designated as a botanical area in 1976, due to its outstanding abundance and diversity of plant life.  It is managed to provide the public with an opportunity to enjoy an undeveloped area of profuse floral display."   I had never seen such an abundance of Pitcher Plants, Sundews, Hastingsias, Bog Asphodels, Sneezeweeds, and Leopard Lilies in my life!  The Pitcher Plants were also HUGE, about 2' tall!  It was an amazingly vigorous and thriving wetland, including a bog, with an astounding variety of plants in full bloom! 

On Saturday we drove up to a local bog near Harris Meadow in the Tahoe National Forest.  This bog is not in a preserve and cows graze in it, which decimates the plant population.  There were probably only about 100 Pitcher Plants, fewer Sundews, and not many other wildflowers.  The Pitcher Plants were also much smaller than the ones we saw at Butterfly Valley, only about 8" tall.  The land is owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, not the Tahoe National Forest.  I visited this bog 13 years ago, and it was in much better shape then.  Unfortunately, lots of logging and road building has occurred in the area since then.  What a shame.

Pitcher Plant Flower & Leaves - Darlingtonia californica

Pitcher Plants are carnivorous plants, and are only found in bogs.  They have largish maroon/yellow-green flowers that dangle from tall stalks above their green, pitcher-shaped leaves.  The rounded top of the leaves are covered with translucent small cells that you can see through!  Another name for the Pitcher Plant is Cobra Lily, which I think fits the plant perfectly!  I found these unusual, exotic plants to be exquisitely beautiful!

The Forest Service states: "Darlingtonia californica is a carnivorous plant; it lures, traps, and dissolves insects with its pitcher shaped leaves. Insects are lured to the slippery pitchers by color and nectar. Once the insect enters the bulbous top of the pitcher it becomes disoriented by the translucent quality of the leaves. Then, the insect has a difficulty determining which way to exit. Eventually, the insect gets trapped inside the tube and slides downward toward the bottom of the pitcher where it is dissolved and absorbed as nutrients by the plant."

Round-leaved Sundew (leaves) - Drosera rotundifolia

These wild-looking, sticky plants were growing in the bog near the Pitcher Plants.  Much smaller in size, the leaves are about as big as the end of your thumb, they are easily overlooked.  However, once you see one of them, you'll suddenly realize there are hundreds of them!  Sundews are carnivorous plants, that are only found in bogs. The genus name, Drosera, is Greek for dewy and refers to the moist, glistening, sticky drops on the leaves, to which small organisms stick. Longer-stalked glands near the edge of a leaf slowly bend inward, securing and placing an entrapped organism in the digestive area of stalkless glands. By feeding on insects, Sundews are able to survive on nutrient-poor soils where other plants are at a disadvantage.  WOW!  What a gorgeous, outrageous plant!

Hastingsia - Mountain Sneezeweed

 Hastingsia alba - Helenium autumnale var montanum

False Asphodel/Western Tofieldia - Bog Asphodel

Tofieldia occidentalis - Narthecium californicum

Four-spotted Skimmer - Goldenrod Crab Spider on Western Azalea

Libellula quadrimaculata - Musumen vatia on Rhododendron occidentale

 Bog Bugs

Lots of dragonflies were zooming all over the bog catching the insects that were feeding on the flowers. They catch insects with their legs, and eat their prey while flying!  My friend spotted a Western Azalea that still had a few blooms on it, in the dry woods.  I zipped over to smell it, as their fragrance is heavenly, and just about bumped my nose on the Goldenrod Crab Spider that was totally camouflaged in the flower center!   I don't think the crab spider would have bit me, but if I had been a flying insect I could have been its lunch!

Washington Lily - Lillium washingtonianum

Forest Flowers

Butterfly Valley is not all bog.  It has forests, creeks, and some wet meadows.  We saw quite a few flowers in these areas, some of which we had never seen before!  The Washington Lily (above photo) was in a pool of sunlight in the dark forest!  It had a lovely, feminine fragrance!  The sunlight dramatically lit this graceful, 4' lily!  Such beauty! Below are photos of some of the flowers that were new to us.  Enjoy!

Douglas's Spiraea - Hedge Nettle

Spiraea douglasii - Stachys albens

Bear Grass near Harris Meadow - Xerophyllum tenax

We saw Bear Grass in Butterfly Valley but it had already bloomed and dried up.  However, at the bog near Harris Meadow it was in bud and in full bloom!  Apparently, the cows didn't eat them because they weren't in the bog.  They were poking out of thickets!  I had never seen these 5' tall plants before!  I lucked out and saw about 25 of them, all in various stages of bloom!  WOW!!!  The "bud" is at the top of a green, asparagus-like, 3'-5' stalk.  The flowers bloom from the bottom of the bud to the top.  Some of them looked like hats!  How lucky we were to see them in bloom!  They were incredible!  

Bear Grass sprouts from an underground rhizome, and doesn't always bloom every year.  However, they will bloom profusely after a forest fire!  Native Americans used the grasses to make cooking bowls, mush baskets, basket hats, small baskets, and braided it for necklaces!  Some tribes boiled the root and ate it!  

Dusky-footed Woodrat Home - Neotoma fuscipes

We came across this Dusky-footed Woodrat home near a creek in a forested area of Butterfly Valley!  It was huge, about 5' tall by 7' wide!  On one side of it, there were several entrances.  We also found some freshly cut vegetation in one of the entrances, a sure sign that the home was inhabited.  Woodrat homes can be quite old.  Some have been documented to be over 60 years old!  Large Woodrat homes have 3 or 4 waterproof sleeping rooms that can also be used as birthing nests and nurseries, as well as leaching rooms, food storage rooms, and latrine areas!  Usually only one Woodrat will occupy a home.  However, several other animals use Woodrat homes for lodging, including mice, brush rabbits, salamanders, snakes, frogs, lizards, centipedes, spiders and insects!  WOW!!!

What is the heck is this?

What's happening with the Bullock's Orioles?

What's happening on the river?

Thanks to inaturalist.org, I found out that these ants are all Carpenter Ants.  
They look different because they are major and minor workers.

Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!

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