Northern Ontario Plant Database

Northern Ontario Vegetation Type (V-type)

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NW-V38: Black Spruce / Leatherleaf / Sphagnum

Summary: A wet, lowland conifer stand dominated by black spruce, with tamarack as a minor component. The trees are generally stunted and widely spaced, typical of bog habitats with limited nutrient uptake. The shrub layer is dominated by Labrador tea and other ericaceous shrubs, with leatherleaf and bog laurel more abundant than the blueberries.

The very poor herb layer is dominated by species that can survive in very wet environments, including threeleaf smilacina, three-fruited sedge, and small cranberry. Hummocks will support creeping snowberry. The forest floor is a continuous carpet of peatmoss interrupted by wet hollows with open water and hummocks formed by the brown bog peatmoss, which support patches of Schreber's feathermoss and a few other moss species.

Soil & Ecosite Types: The Black Spruce / Leatherleaf / Sphagnum Vegetation Type (NW-V38) occurs primarily on Ecosite Types ES 34 (Treed Bog: Black Spruce/Sphagnum, organic soil) and ES 35 (Poor Swamp: Black Spruce, organic soil), and rarely on ES 12 (Black Spruce-Jack Pine, very shallow soil). This vegetation type can be found on poorly drained, lowland sites transitional to open bogs, primarily with organic soils (S12S, S12F, S11, SS9). Rarely, this site type may occur on shallow (SS1, SS2) or mineral (S7, S8) in the western portions of northwestern Ontario.

Note: The percentage of sample plots that contained overstorey tree species is given in square brackets after each scientific name. Other species are listed in order of frequency, according to the NW-FEC manual.

Trees:

overstorey:

black spruce (Picea mariana) [10]
tamarack (or larch) (Larix laricina) [1]

regeneration:

black spruce (Picea mariana)

Shrubs:

low shrubs:

Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum)
leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata)
bog laurel (Kalmia polifolia)
lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium)
velvetleaf blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillides)

Dwarf Shrubs & Herbs:

dwarf shrubs:

small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccus)
creeping snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula)

forbs:

threeleaf smilacina (Maianthemum trifolium)

graminoids:

three-fruited sedge (Carex trisperma)

Bryophytes:

Schreber's feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi)
brown bog peatmoss (Sphagnum fuscum)
midway peatmoss (Sphagnum magellanicum)
northern peatmoss (Sphagnum capillifolium)
common green peatmoss (Sphagnum girgensohnii)
wavyleaf moss (Dicranum polysetum)
narrowleaf peatmoss (Sphagnum angustifolium)
juniper moss (Polytrichium juniperinum)
plume moss (Ptilium crista-castrensis)

Lichens:

gray reindeer lichen (Cladina rangiferina)