Commercially grown cranberries and domestic Richmond Nature Park: blueberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon, V. corymbosum), Context Map pre-adapted to life in acid soils, have been spread throughout the park in bird droppings. Domestic OAK ST blueberry poses a serious threat to native species. It grows as a high bush, and if allowed to spread unchecked will shade out most of the native Bog Ecology species. In some areas of the park, most notably a broad east-west band bordering Westminster

Highway, domestic blueberries are the dominant from west east Vancouver from vascular plant in the shrub layer.

HIGHWAY 99

NO 5 RD

HIGHWAY 91 HIGHWAY 91 RICHMOND NATURE STUDY CENTRE RICHMOND NATURE PARK WESTMINSTER HWY

NO 5 RD NO 4 RD 4 NO

SHELL RD from Delta

The Nature Park is open daily from dawn to dusk. The Nature House is open daily Changes in the Bog 9:00am-5:00pm Admission is by donation developments in Richmond have swallowed up most of the Bog. The remaining fragment that For more information about is the Nature Park has also been changed by human Richmond Nature Park and its programs activities. The ditches dug around its perimeter please call 604-718-6188 artificially lower the water table in adjacent areas discover and, especially during summer months, reduce the or email [email protected] growth of Sphagnum, thus affecting the distribution of other plants. On either side of Highway 99, which Richmond Nature Park Richmond... bisects the park, fill has been added to the bog, and 11851 Westminster Highway, Richmond, B.C. the nutrients within it have supported the growth V6X 1B4 Tel: 604-718-6188 Fax: 604-718-6189 of a dense birch forest. Other plants not typical of have also colonized the fill, including western To learn more about Richmond’s many parks hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), red elderberry and facilities, please visit the (Sambucus racemosa), cascara (Rhamnus purshiana), Parks, Trails & Cycling web page at salal (Gaultheria shallon), several Rubus species, and www.richmond.ca sword fern (Polystichum munitum). Nature Park Parks Trails Many of the most conspicuous flowering plants found The Lulu Island Bog in bogs are heaths (Family Ericaceae). Common examples in the Richmond Nature Park are Labrador and its Vegetation tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum), bog laurel (Kalmia microphylla), bog rosemary (Andromeda polifolia), and The Richmond Nature Park contains the largest native species of blueberries and cranberry (Vaccinium undeveloped remnant of the Greater Lulu Island species). Elsewhere, heaths grow in other harsh, low- Bog, which once covered most of east-central Lulu nutrient climates, especially in higher elevations and Island. Bogs first developed at the eastern end of lower mainland where this species occurs. A tree latitudes. Lulu Island, on land formed long ago from silt and characteristic of bogs, in small stands or extensive debris deposited at what was then the mouth of the Another plant more typical of cold climates is forests, is the Shore Pine (Pinus contorta). This conifer . Before achieving its current raised cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus), a relative of can tolerate the poor soils, stage, the Lulu Island bog went through salt marsh, blackberries and raspberries. It is a relic from the last yet may have a stunted or Bog Ecology sedge and heath stages as deposition from the Fraser cool, post-glacial period and finds refuge in bogs spindly appearance. River caused the island to expand westward and the where plants of temperate climates cannot compete. Carnivorous plants are A bog is a type of wetland with soil composed of course of the river became farther removed. The Richmond Nature Park is one of few sites in the partially decomposed organic material known also characteristic of bogs. as peat. On the surface grow hummocks of wet There may be numerous species of Sphagnum moss They compensate for the Sphagnum moss and various hardy plants that are within a bog, each with its own preferred set of lack of nutrients in the soil able to tolerate the cool and wet acidic peat soils. environmental conditions. Seven species have been by trapping and digesting Many of these plants are “left-overs” from a time identified in the Richmond Nature Park. Species of small insects. The round- when this was an Arctic climate. Sphagnum can absorb almost 30 times their mass in leafed sundew, (Drosera water, and they secrete acid to aid in the absorption rotundifolia), which traps Living Sphagnum plants are only a few centimetres of scarce nutrients. For other plants to survive in the insects on the sticky ends tall, but may remain connected to non-living parts bog, they must be able to tolerate a high water table, of hairs extending from its of the plant hundreds of years old extending metres poor levels of soil nutrients, and low pH. leaves, occurs in a few of underground. Sphagnum-dominated bogs develop the wettest areas of the under cool, wet climatic conditions in areas where Richmond Nature Park. rainwater accumulates, but which receive little or no inflow of waterborne nutrients. Agricultural and urban