Adirondack Open Wetland Assessment – Route 8 Marsh
The New York Natural Heritage Program is assessing 20 different open wetlands in the Upper Hudson watershed this year as part of a project for the Division of Water in the DEC. The assessment includes data on species and their percent cover in an 80 meter diameter circle as well as in four 10×10 plots. Additional data on landscape quality surrounding the plots adds to the assessment. On July 25th Greg Edinger and I visited a fen south of Route 8 west of Piseco Lake. – Steve Young
It was another beautiful wetland on another beautiful day. The fen is dominated by Calamagrostis canadensis, bluejoint grass, Carex stricta, hummock sedge, and Carex lasiocarpa, American woolyfruit sedge, with some shrubs of Alnus incana ssp. rugosa, speckled alder and lots of Sphagnum.
We had to be careful not to step into a drainage channel that can be camouflaged by the tall grasses.
Here is Greg standing in one of the ditches taking notes on the aquatic vegetation present.
A muddier opening had some plants of round-leaved sundew, Drosera rotundifolia, that is in bloom this time of year. They also tend to occur in the muddier areas along deer trails. Try not to step on them!
The muddy area also had a nice stand of Lycopodiella inundata, northern bog clubmoss, with its horizontal stems.
I thought I had seen all the species in one of our plots when Greg spied a small green woodland orchid, Platanthera clavellata. It was the first orchid we had seen during the surveys.
New York Flora Association Blog 
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