We're Back in the Rigging Again!

Bogs are fascinating habitats that contain many bizarre species of plants. In the Manitoba Museum’s Boreal Forest Gallery, we have a lovely diorama that depicts what a typical bog looks like. Recently an intern at the Museum, Jon Makar, prepared a report on some of the unusual plants depicted in this diorama. Here’s what he found out!

First off, what exactly is a bog? Bogs are formed when sedges, rushes, and Sphagnum mosses completely cover wetlands, eventually forming a floating mat of vegetation. Bogs are fed only by rainwater and are thus poor in nutrients. Bogs are also very acidic because Sphagnum produces acids as waste products; this makes the bog less suitable for other plants. The acidity of the water in bogs decreases the rate of decomposition, which results in a build up of “peat moss” over time.

A common woody species found in bogs is black spruce (Picea mariana). One reason black spruce can survive in bogs is due its symbioses with special mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi wrap around the tree roots and provide it with nutrients in exchange for carbohydrates. Minerals like magnesium, potassium, and calcium as well as phosphates and nitrates are some of the important nutrients that fungi obtain and share with the tree.

Orchids are another group of plants that can be found in the bog diorama; round-leaved orchid (Amerorchis rotundifolia), showy lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium reginae), yellow lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum), and grass pink (Calopogon tuberosus) models were created by the Museum’s diorama artist. All orchids depend on insects for pollination. Lady’s-slipper orchids trap pollinators inside the “slipper” as the walls are-you guessed it-slippery, meaning the pollinator can’t climb out the way it came. A hairy strip at the back of the slipper gives the pollinator footing and allows it to escape through a back entrance, but only once it has brushed past the stigma, pollinating the flower if it had any pollen sacs attached to it. As the insect moves past the stigma it brushes past the anthers, causing new pollen sacs to stick to it and be taken to the next lady’s slipper.

This small round-leaved orchid (Amerorchis rotundifolia) model was made by the Museum’s diorama artist.

The dioramas at the Museum contain hundreds of fascinating plant species that are usually over shadowed by the large mammals. The bog diorama is an exception to this, focusing instead on the plants and tiny animals that are part of our boreal forests.

OK I’m exaggerating, plants don’t really want to kill us-they just don’t want us (or any other animal) to eat them. So plants have evolved ways to protect themselves-thorns, spines and prickles come to mind. But instead of physical armaments, many plants use chemical warfare to keep us pesky mammals away.

The native stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) plant possesses nasty little hairs on its leaves with a bulb of poison at the base. When an animal brushes up against the leaves, the hairs inject the poison, causing an itchy rash and discouraging the animal from eating it. Some people still eat stinging nettle though (I’ve eaten it myself in fact), because it is very nutritious: high in protein, iron, and vitamins A and C. But humans have weapons that other animals don’t: rubber gloves and fire! Stinging nettle MUST be cooked to neutralize the toxin (I’d hate to think of what would happen if you tried to eat it raw). Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), another native plant, also produces a rash-inducing poison but it is on the surface of the leaf.

Many plant chemicals will not affect an animal unless they are ingested. Milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) contain cardiac glycosides that make them toxic to most animals. But one ingenious creature has found a way around that: Monarch (Danaus plexippus) caterpillars. Monarchs evolved a method to store those toxins in their bodies, making them poisonous to predators.

Even some of our common grocery store foods are poisonous. Take tapioca for instance. Many people find tapioca bland and boring. In reality the cassava plant that tapioca is made from, is actually pretty exciting. Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is the botanical equivalent of Japanese fugu, a poisonous fish that has to be prepared by expert sushi chefs to render it non-lethal. Cassava roots contain large quantities of cyanide-enough to make a human seriously ill or even kill you if you try to eat it raw (raw foodist-you have been warned). Cassava needs to be soaked, fermented, dried and/or cooked to get rid of the cyanide and make it edible.

Now pass the wasabi peas, please. Ouch, ahhhhh, that’s the stuff!