Wild in New England - Part I

Ponemah Bog

Amherst, New Hampshire

On May 7^th, Tracy Collins and I took the opportunity to visit Ponemah Bog.

The 75-acre Ponemah Bog Wildlife Sanctuary has been administered by the Audubon Society of New Hampshire since 1979. Featuring a three-acre pond surrounded by a floating Sphagnum mat and encircled by upland oakpine woods. This bog resulted from the last receding glacier, which left a kettle hole pond in the Souhegan River outwash plain.




Our first view of the area.




The three-acre pond which is surrounded by a wide, boggy margin.


On the boardwalk.


There was plenty of red/orange Sphagnum to be seen and we soon located Sarracenia purpurea ssp. purpurea.




















It was a particularly harsh winter in New England and other than the occasional emerging flower bud, there were no signs of fresh growth.




We did manage to find one small group of Drosera rotundifolia just emerging from a patch of Sphagnum.