Expedition to the Bog

Yesterday we went to one of my favorite places to visit - a bog. While June is really lack of excitement in a bog it was still fun (May and July are the best times to visit).

Just call me "sedge girl" or "bog girl" (woman once I get my phd)

Of course we found lots of orchids: white fringed (not in flower), grass pink, rose pogonia... sedges, including a new rhynchospora for the collection, and of course: leatherleaf!

Grass pink: common bog orchid

Bogs are really exciting places. Perhaps the most excitement for the day though came as a surprise. Unfortunately Ken had an allergic reaction so in the morning I took care of the class and even gave a lecture. It was kind of nuts but it went OK. Usually when lecturing I've had weeks to prepare - however, this was more of a "real" last minute experience. Literally we went over it in 3 minutes and then the class came in and he left for the ER.

Euphorbiaceae, Asteraceae, Cyperacea, and Poaceae were the 4 families I covered - talk about a challenge!

Carex sp.

These four families have some real crazy stuff going on, neat pollenation mechanisms, evolutionary twists, etc. They are huge, diverse, difficult to key out families. None-the-less they are fun, entertaining, and interesting. Difficult to teach about - I don't think I'll ever forget the looks on the faces in the class when I tried to explain glumes, lemmas, paleas, spikelets, florets, etc. Perhaps the only thing more memorable than the looks on their faces was Ken's "I know exactly what you mean" chuckle and grin when I questioned him later if he always gets that look.