Floodplain Forest Flora

The warm weather's on it's way and that means soon the river ice will break up, New Hamburg will be underwater and so too will the expanses of low-lying forest which line rivers and watercourses.

I'm really looking forward to exploring some floodplain forest sites in 2015.  A few oxbows on the Nith River near Paris, a property backing onto Big Creek near Walsingham, the good old Thames River between London and St. Marys, and who knows where else.  Floodplain forests are an interesting bottomland community, seasonally subject to flooding of an adjacent river or stream.  These areas are fun to explore in the spring and early summer when you can find all sorts of treasures that washed down stream (I found a circa 1990 Sea-Doo last year!).

Here are a few 'higher quality' species that one might find in a rich floodplain forest in Southern Ontario.

Green Dragon (Arisaema dracontium) resembles Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) but prefers wetter soils.  Look for this species in backwater sloughs and oxbows.  I remember the first time I found Green Dragon, for a brief moment I forgot all about the excruciating pain of traipsing through an endless grove of Stinging Nettle, one of the common hazards of floodplain botany.  This shot from along the Nith River captures the leaves unfurling early in the season

A different plant at the same location with a head start on the one in the first photo.

The sheathed flower will eventually unfurl but at this point it kind of looks like a garlic scape.

False Mermaid (Floerkea proserpinacoides) is a refreshing and often overlooked species.  It often forms carpets of delicate foliage early in the spring.  If you look closely you can see one or two of the simple white, three-petal/three sepal blooms.

I first saw Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) at the annual Newport Forest hike along the Thames River near Wardsville.  If you're looking for a great spring outing I highly recommend it.

I purchased a 1 gallon pot of bluebells last year only to see it slowly be defoliated by slugs.  I'm hoping it rebounds; it's a beautiful plant.  Perhaps a ring of copper pennies around the plant will keep the slugs at bay (I've heard).

Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) is by no means exclusive to floodplains but in my experience a watercourse is never far away.  I remember once my Dad returned from walking the dogs along the Thames and he described seeing this strange 2-leaved plant with white flowers, I went and checked it out and sure enough it was Twinleaf.  Much like the Virginia Bluebells, the leaves just have this soft green hue that catches the eye.