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If you are interested in pine barren plants, or even in fire ecology, you should go the the site of the Woodmansie fire and take a look around. It is really instructional to see what a very hot fire can do to reset and rejuvenate the land. The plants rising up are phenomenal in quality. It's...

Yesterday, in Chatsworth, the flies were super-aggressive. This must be the new brood. I was hassled the entire time I was out there. I had to carry a branch from a bush and swing it around my head constantly (this works in a pinch). Usually they back off, but these flies were like kamikaze...

Here are two related plants close together. I'll bet this is a rare event. Any guesses? Bad news is a clue.

I disagree with the township keeping it open for the public. If those off-roaders get into those spungs, it's all over. At least NJCF will gate it and allow hunters in by registration.

Thanks Guy, let's watch this carefully. It is prime pine barren land for preservation. If you recall, I wanted to visit those spungs last month to check out the flora, but backed off when I realized it was private. PS: if it was worth $672K, then the guy would sell it to pay taxes. I don't...

Up to my crotch and sinking fast in a sphagnous wetland yesterday on the upper Oswego.

Your little guy is a real cutey pie. He did not pick up any chiggers I hope.

Mark (and German): As I said when I first mentioned it, I'll always use the local terms; in my case I usually just call them sphagnum bogs. But if I need to be formal, I'm apt to call them sphagnous wetlands or coastal plain riverine peat swamps. But as I studied plants in the pine barrens...

You really do go to great lengths to defend a favored position Mark. I'd rather you would just say..."yeah, you're probably right Bob, even if we disregard the savanna systems, there are probably many places in the heart of the pine barren river systems you've explored where the water supply is...

I never said we went down it :). I was on your blue line when I turned to the left and snapped the photo. I was there 2 Saturday's ago.

Mark, why get hung up on this “true peat” requirement for a fen? As you point out above, peat, while mostly sphagnum moss, is also made up of sedges, here mostly Carex species and club mosses. If you go into a quaking bog here, and you end up sinking to your hip, you’ve landed in “mucky peat”...

How about right here Al:

Mark, earlier, you referred to Collins and Anderson (2004) when describing Bogs. From that same source when speaking about what they call savannas in South Jersey, they indicate on pages 159-160 that "along shallow streams....water acidity with inadequate drainage creates conditions favorable to...

Yes! So very close you are to the actual spot. Let's see if Al zeros in further.

Clue: this photo is from the second time I was there, and the first time I was there, so was the entire crew, which always includes you.

Getting warmer Al. Maybe 3.5 miles or so east of the area you live. Here is the original.

Thanks!

Mark, where did you learn the requirement that a fen must have 16" of peat? When a true fen by that standard had just 8" of peat while it was forming 10,000 years ago, was it not still a fen? By the way, I have Collins and Anderson on my shelf too. What page are you referring too?

Sorry, I should not have mixed that message in that post. That is for Al (Manumuskin). It was shot down his way.

Second photo down in post 12 shows trees at the edge of a spung. They are Nyssa sylvatica, Black Gum. I have never seen them so vibrant as this. This shows what they can be if given the right conditions for growth in our area. I'll have to go back in the fall to get the color...