Invasives, Natives

Not a comprehensive list, but here goes: these are a likely group of plants you will see just strolling around the boardwalk.  These are the common names in Canadian English.  For a more complete list (including animals), and with taxonomical names, go to the CBRG list


NATIVE BOG SPECIES
ground covers:
sphagnum moss (keystone species)
arctic starflower
bunchberry
cloudberry
bog cranberry
sundew

bushes:
labrador tea
kalmia
bog blueberry

trees:
lodgepole pine (also shore pine)
Saskatoon berry
Caskara

INVASIVE SPECIES
groundcover:
polytrichum moss
fern (deer, sword, bracken, all the ferns)
skunk cabbage
salal
juncus

bushes:
huckleberry
some blueberry species
salmonberry
blackberry

trees:
Western hemlock
birches
Mountain ash

Native bog species prefer a high water table with low nutrient, high acid conditions.  These conditions existed at Camosun bog for 2000 years.  When the City of Vancouver encroached upon Camosun bog, drains were installed. Water levels went down.  sphagnum moss died, decayed and became soil.  nutrient levels went up.  Invasive species easily outcompeted the bog plants in these new conditions.  A hemlock forest crept in through the process of ecological succession.  Read about the history of Camosun bog here.