Plants

Plants overview:

           As you enter the swamp you are welcomed by some large nootka rose bushes and some baldhip rose bushes. The best way to tell the difference of these two roses apart is to feel their thorns. The nootka rose has very big and strong thorns that could easily cut you, where as the baldhip rose has thorns that are pretty wimpy and can be bent easily. These are just two plant species of the many you will see within the swamp. The reason I like to begin with plants is because they are something that you can actively be observing all throughout your visit to the swamp. The diversity and uniqueness of plants found in the swamp is intriguing. There are western red cedars, Douglas firs, and many cottonwoods. Western red cedars have leafs that are flat and scaly, Douglas fir leafs are conical and when you grab the needles they aren’t very sharp, and the cottonwoods are the tall trees with the kinds of leafs that one would draw if they were asked to draw a leaf. Some other plants in the swamp include ferns, horsetails, and my favorite – skunk cabbage. There are two common ferns in the swamp, one being sword fern and the other being lady fern. Sword fern have leaflets that come straight to a point, whereas lady ferns leaflets break into even more leaflets. These ferns are very abundant and really thrive in the swamp. There are also quite a few horsetails which look a little like asparagus growing out of the ground. I only know of one skunk cabbage in the swamp, and in early May its yellow leaf is very bright and vibrant which is why it’s my favorite. It also has an interesting smell that always lets me know I’m in a wet marshy kind of place.

Skunk cabbage

 Fungi/Lichen:

             After a few steps into the swamp, you are bombarded by mushrooms to your right! Around mid-May is when there is the greatest amount, but you should be able to find something all throughout spring. An interesting thing about mushrooms is their relationship with trees and plants around them. Mycorrhizal fungi are mushrooms whose hyphae (think roots) connect to tree roots. This gives the mushroom nutrients, and it gives the tree more water because it’s like the roots are extended.

            Another type of fungi is lichen. These can be found on many of the trees throughout the swamp. These organisms are very interesting because of their remarkable survivability. They can be found from an extremely wide range of temperatures. Lichens also have the ability to dry up if it doesn’t get any water, then come back to life so to speak when the rain comes again. There are 3 types of lichen that can help with identifying them. The first type is crustose and these lichens are on tree bark or rocks and are like crust; very hard to peel off. Another type are the foliose lichens which are similar to crustose but these aren’t as plastered on and are more leaf-like. Lastly, there are the fruiticose lichens which are shrub and hairy-like and can be found dangling down off of branches. All three types can be found here in Yesler Swamp. Go out and find them!

Fruiticose lichen

Ecological disturbance:

            Around early May there was a windstorm that knocked a tree over. At first glance you would think that this is a bad thing, but some ecological disturbances are actually quite beneficial to the maturity and growth of the swamp. The wood of the tree will slowly rot and decompose over the following years, which will create another kind of niche in the swamp that many invertebrates and birds may take advantage of. Decomposers will eat what they can of the downed tree, and the soil around the tree will be fresh and nutritious for other plants and animals in the surrounding area. The loss of the standing tree may also open up some room for sunlight to break through the canopy, so there is more room for other plants to grow in what use to be shaded areas. Without occasional disturbances like this, there would not be much diversity of plants in the swamp because it would just be full of tall cottonwoods until they all died around the same age. The diversity of the plants caused by disturbance in the swamp is important because that is what creates habitat niches for specific animals in the form of tall healthy trees, snags, and woody debris around the swamp flow, like we have in this case.