Cedar Bog State Nature Preserve

Friday
A beautiful day today, so time for another outing, this time to Cedar Bog State Nature Preserve, north of Springfield, about an hours drive from here, and a place I have been wanting to visit for a while. In reality it is actually a “fen” rather than a “bog”. We learned that the key point in distinguishing between a fen and a bog is noting how a particular wetland became wet. Fens are created by water bubbling up from an underground aquifer while bogs are created by rainfall pooling in a low area. The water in bogs doesn’t flow anywhere. Water enters a bog via periodic rains and leaves via evaporation. In contrast water pressure in an underground aquifer forces water to continually bubble up into a fen. The continual inflow means that there is also a continual outflow.
Because of its underground source, the water in fens is a constant, cool temperature. At Cedar Bog (really a Fen!), the water remains between 45 and 50 degrees Farenheit whether its summer or winter.
This creates a tiny microclimate, and many plants here are quite rare, if not unique to this area. Most of the plants in my collage however are quite common Fall plants in Ohio, but in great profusion. I was lucky to capture a five-lined skink, it’s blue tail denoting it’s a juvenile. I was hoping to see various butterflies and dragonflies as well, but they weren’t very much in evidence today. You explore the preserve by a boardwalk, since the ground is so wet, and also to protect the plants. We have decided we shall have to return in late Spring, say May or June, to see the Spring flowers.