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1. Pioneer Habitat
On bare peat areas abandoned after industrial peat cutting are
rapidly colonised by plants that have underground stems such
as common rush. This species forms dense clumps on the bare peat.
Other species favouring this habitat are horsetail and arrowgrass.
(Photo: Peter Foss) |
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2. Lake
Large expanses of open water, which may be colonized at their
edges by submerged and emergent wetland plants. Under the water
plants such as pond weed, amphibious bistort, millefoil, duckweed
and bladderwort occur. (Photo: Brendan Kavanagh) |
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3. Acid Drain
In permanently wet drains over acid peat arrowgrass, horsetail,
common rush, bulbous rush, whorl grass and floating sweet-grass
occur. In drier drains over acid peat the beginnings of a birch
woodland can be seen with birch and willow trees, bramble, ivy,
rose-bay willow herb and male fern. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
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4. Alkaline Drain
Drains influenced by ground water or that are deep enough to
extend to the alkaline peat or the underlying shell marl or mineral
soil, contain a great variety of plants including: marsh pennywort,
bulrush, marsh cinquefoil, lady's smock, common rush, mare's
tail, water forget me not, royal fern, meadow sweet, lesser spearwort,
birch and willow. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
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5. Acid Bog Hole
Bog holes left behind by turf cutters in cutover bogs are usually
wet. If the peat underneath is acid, then Sphagnum bog vegetation
regenerates. Sphagnum mosses fill the hole together with sundew,
bog cotton and cross-leaved heath. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
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6. Alkaline Bog
Hole
Bog hole left behind by turf cutters which is in filling with
fen vegetation. The peat is alkaline and wet. Bog bean and pond
weed grow in the open water. Along the margins the vegetation
is dominated by purple moor grass and sedges. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
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7. Birch/Willow Woodland
Birch/willow woods have 3 structural layers. The canopy trees
are of birch and willow. Species in the shrub/herb layer include
bramble, ivy, honeysuckle and ferns. The woodland floor is usually
covered with plant litter and small cushions of moss such as
the Tamarisk feather moss. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
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8. Coniferous Woodland
Lodgepole pine and Sitka spruce stands vary in age from the recently
planted plots to mature plantations on the bog fringes. (Photo:
Peter Foss) |
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9. Heather Heathland
On dry turf banks, the peat becomes hard and firm underfoot.
The wet-loving bog plants quickly die out, and in the dry acid
conditions, ling heather thrives. It forms bushes up to 1m tall.
In the shade cast by the shrub only woodland mosses can survive
such as feather moss. This is a heathland. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
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10. Sphagnum Bog
This habitat is found in bogs that have been cutaway by hand.
On these sites, the wet bog holes from which turf was removed
by the cutters, becomes in filled with spongy Sphagnum mosses.
Conditions are waterlogged and acidic. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
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11. Reed Bed
Reed bed occur in cutaway and cutover bogs. The vegetation is
dominated by the tall reed grass.This plants spreads by means
of underground stems. In the ground layer pennywort and other
marsh plants are present. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
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12. Natural Grassland
Grassland occurs on the driest parts of cutaway and cutover bogs.
It usually develops where there has been mineral soil spread
over the peat, perhaps to make access roads for turf cutters
or from deepening a drain. A great variety of species of grass
and flowering plants (or weeds) occur. (Photo: Brendan Kavanagh) |
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13. Commercial Grassland
Rye grass/clover meadows for hay, silage and summer and winter
grazing. (Photo: Catherine O'Connell) |
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14. Fen
This habitat occurs in cutover bogs where the acid peat has been
entirely cut away for fuel. This exposes the black, alkaline
fen peat that formed in the bog up to 7,000 years ago. The habitat
is usually flooded with mineral-rich ground water and a diverse
community of mosses and plants develops. Often the vegetation
forms a quaking mat on the surface which can be difficult to
cross. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
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15. Bog Cotton Fields
Large flat areas on the bog where the many headed bog cotton
plant dominates. They form on areas of the bog that were used
to dry sausage cut turf and on wet bare peat. Bog cotton spreads
rapidly by means of underground stems, that produce new plants
at intervals to form bright white patches on the bog in summer.
Depending on the pH of the peat soil, whether acid or alkaline,
other plants typical of the Sphagnum bog habitat or of wetland
habitats grow with the bog cotton. (Photo: Peter Foss) |
