Mountain Bogs

Mountain Bogs are open, herb and graminoid-dominated wetlands on flat, poorly drained locations with deep, peaty soils and scattered hummocks of sphagnum moss. These bogs are very rare - jewels of the mountains. In most bogs, encroaching great laurel rhododendron, tag alder, mountain laurel, and other shrubs shade out the herbaceous layer, but some special bogs have areas that are dominated by rare and beautiful forbs, grasses and sedges.

Indicator species: sphagnum moss, Carolina bog laurel, purple pitcher plant, carex crinita, swamp pink.

What's special: Mountain bogs are very rare in Georgia and are true natural community gems, with many rare and showy plants and rare animals, such as bog turtles.

Related communities: if water moves more rapidly and less sphagnum is present, mountain bogs will grade into seepage wetlands. A "seepage bog" straddles the two natural communities.

Plants

Click on a plant name to see images. The plants are listed in order by scientific name.

Trees
Red maple  Acer rubrum
Sweet gum Liquidambar styraciflua
Tulip-tree Liriodendron tulipifera
Black gum  Nyssa sylvatica
Pitch pine  Pinus rigida
White pine Pinus strobus
Rock chestnut oak  Quercus montana

Shrubs
Tag alder Alnus serrulata
Black chokeberry  Aronia melanocarpa
Mountain sweet-pepperbush  Clethra acuminata
Bear huckleberry  Gaylussacia ursina
Winterberry Ilex verticillata
Carolina bog myrtle/Sheep's laurel Kalmia carolina
Mountain laurel  Kalmia latifolia
Northern maleberry  Lyonia ligustrina
Sweet azalea  Rhododendron arborescens
Great laurel  Rhododendron maximum
Allegheny blackberry Rubus allegheniensis
Common elderberry  Sambucus canadensis
Smooth highbush blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum
Hillside blueberry  Vaccinium pallidum
Northern wild raisin  Viburnum cassinoides
Yellowroot Xanthorhiza simplicissima (a sub-shrub)

Ground layer
Wildflowers
Fly poison  Amianthium muscitoxicum
White turtlehead  Chelone glabra
Pink lady's-slipper  Cypripedium acaule
Swamp pink Helonias bullata
Orange jewelweed  Impatiens capensis
Cardinal flower  Lobelia cardinalis
Indian cucumber-root  Medeola virginiana
Monkey-flower Mimulus ringens
Small green wood orchid Platanthera clavellata
Green pitcherplant Sarracenia oreophila
Purple pitcherplant Sarracenia purpurea
Roughleaf goldenrod Solidago patula
Swamp aster Symphyotrichum puniceum
Painted trillium Trillium undulatum

Graminoids
Sedge Carex crinita
Common rush  Juncus effusus

Ferns
Cinnamon fern Osmundastrum cinnamomeum
Netted chain fern Lorinseria areolata
Royal fern  Osmunda spectabilis
New York fern  Thelypteris noveboracensis

Mosses
Peat mosses Sphagnum spp.

Representative Trees (on edges)