Photo Tour of Ohio Wetland Plants

Below are photographs of vascular plants found within wetlands sampled by Ohio EPA during several seasons of wetland bioassessment field research. As you can see, the plants vary with the type of wetland in which they are found.

Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) at Kiser Lake State Nature Preserve in Champaign County (west central) Ohio. Kiser Lake is an emergent marsh dominated by bur reed (Sparganium eurycarpum) with a seep fen zone at its margins dominated by tussock sedge (Carex stricta). Marsh  marigold blooms in the spring and and is often an indicator of ground water inputs or permanently saturated soils. Photo by John Mack.

Ravensfoot sedge (Carex crus-corvi), a state-endangered sedge growing in a forested wetland in Pickaway County (south-central) Ohio. This was a new population of this plant found by Ohio EPA in a small, formerly grazed and selectively cut woodlot. Photo by John Mack

Hop sedge (Carex lupulina), a common sedge of forested wetlands in Ohio. Photo by Mick Micacchion.		Closeup of the inflorescence and peryngia of Ravensfoot sedge (Carex crus-corvi), Pickaway County, Ohio. Photo by John Mack

Pink lady's slipper or moccasin flower (Cypripedium acuale), an orchid found in a large, high quality red maple swamp on Carlisle Muck soils within a relict stand of tamarack (Larix laricina) in Williams County (northwest), Ohio. Photo by Mick Micacchion.

Yellow water-cup (Ranunculus flabellaris) and eastern manna grass (Glyceria septentrionalis) growing as an aquatic bed in a buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) swamp, in Slate Run Metropark, Franklin County (central), Ohio. Buttonbush is a dominate wetland shrub in swamps throughout much of Ohio. At higher quality wetlands, aquatic buttercup species and grasses like eastern manna grass are often observed.

Blue flag (Iris versicolor) along the margins of a buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) swamp in the Delware Wildlife Area, Marion County (central), Ohio.

Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), a common wetland flower that blooms in late winter and early spring and sends up large, brilliantly green leaves by late spring and early summer. Skunk cabbage is a common wetland plant in Ohio found mostly growing on permanently saturated soils and in seep zones and is often an indicator of ground water inputs to a wetland.

Ricciocarpus natans is an aquatic bryophyte (liverwort), a nonvascular plant, found floating on the surface of Ohio wetlands in late winter and early spring, especially higher quality shrub swamps.