33 images Created 27 Nov 2014
Meadows and Muskeg
Southeast Alaska is one of the wettest places on earth receiving over 275 inches (6,980 mm) a year. The wet climate defines the distinct vegetation from the ancient temperate rain forest, to the wet meadows and muskegs. Muskeg is an Indian word meaning an area entirely devoid of ordinary mineral soil. The upper layers of the ground are composed mainly of living sphagnum moss and the lower layers are composed of a fibrous brown mass of partially decayed sphagnum called peat. They form in depressions, in flat areas, or on general slopes where drainage is poor. They may occur in the alpine, forest and shoreline zones. The water table is usually near the ground surface, but there is little standing water except for ponds that range in size from potholes to small lakes. The vegetation is variable with dense beds of sphagnum moss, sedges, rushes, low growing shrubs, and numerous small prostrate berry-bearing plants. In drier areas stunted trees draped with lichens and moss can be abundant.
I have always been interested in botany, and if I wasn’t out in my kayak or beachcombing then I was always happy to immerse myself in photographing the lush pristine vegetation of Southeast Alaska, or forage for edible wild plants and berries. I loved the wide open, coastal meadows bristling with many species of rushes and sedges, and amidst the pervading greenery oases of brightly coloured flowers: the muskegs with their ornamental arrangement of jet-black ponds and stunted trees, and spongy mattresses of moss with a profusion of Lilliputian plants, flowers and berries, that always invited closer inspection down at their level. During the prolonged twilight of the northerly latitude the diversity of plant life takes on a more vivid presence, especially the animated twisted dwarf trees festooned with luminous moss that hangs in the dim light.
I have always been interested in botany, and if I wasn’t out in my kayak or beachcombing then I was always happy to immerse myself in photographing the lush pristine vegetation of Southeast Alaska, or forage for edible wild plants and berries. I loved the wide open, coastal meadows bristling with many species of rushes and sedges, and amidst the pervading greenery oases of brightly coloured flowers: the muskegs with their ornamental arrangement of jet-black ponds and stunted trees, and spongy mattresses of moss with a profusion of Lilliputian plants, flowers and berries, that always invited closer inspection down at their level. During the prolonged twilight of the northerly latitude the diversity of plant life takes on a more vivid presence, especially the animated twisted dwarf trees festooned with luminous moss that hangs in the dim light.
