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| The Bruce Alvars. |
On the third day we visited the Bruce alvars--this is a Swedish word for rock formations with large flat plates of limestone broken up by cracks which support some very unusual vegetation. It's only recently that these formations on the Great Lakes were recognized as being similar to those found in Sweden and Estonia.
There is very little soil on the surface of these plates, making a harsh habitat for plants, baking in temperatures of over a 100 degrees in the summer, cold and windswept in the winter, with spring flooding which lasts a long time, delaying seed germination. Soil accumulates in the large cracks, known as "grykes," that can support a variety of trees such as jack pines, white cedar, quaking aspens, prostrate junipers, and there are some rare plants that are unique to the Bruce Alvars.
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| VNPS members explore the alvars. |
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| Jack pine (Pinus banksiana) |
On our first site at the crossing of Dyer's Bay Road, the trees were mostly jack pine and quaking aspens with low prostrate junipers (
Juniperus horizontalis) and serviceberry. On the alvars we saw bearberry, columbines in bloom, calamint, Seneca snakeroot, wild strawberries, lyre-leaved sage, early saxifrage, and harebells. In places one had to step carefully to avoid stomping over the hundreds of yellow lady slipper orchids--quite dwarfed here compared to the ones in the rich woods. Ebony spleenworts, mosses and other ferns grew in the shelter of the grykes.
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| Ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron) growing in a gryke |
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| Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) |
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| Yellow lady slipper buds (Cypripedium calceolus) |
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| Wild columbines (Aquilegia canadensis) |
We were reluctant to wander in too far--in this unmarked terrain it would be easy to get lost, and I had no desire to find any of the endangered Massasauga rattlesnakes that live here. We stopped for a quick lunch at Crane River Park and then went back to the other side of Route 6 to check out the plants there.
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| Plaque at the Dyer's Road crossroad. |
There was a boardwalk here, where we came across flowers of the rare native lakeside daisy (
Hymenoxys herbacea) with its charming yellow flowers. We also found lake iris, big leaved aster, and death camas.
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| Lakeside daisies on the alvars. |
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| Close-up of lakeside daisies. |
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| Reindeer moss (Cladina rangiferina) |
The light drizzle that had started as we were setting out on the boardwalk continued, becoming steadier--I was feeling so chilled by then, I began to lose interest. Lovely as the lakeside daisies were, once we had seen these, our spirits began to flag, and around three everyone decided to call it a day and head back to the resort. A good call, as we drove back on Route 6, the drizzle became a heavy downpour. I was one of the designated drivers and was having a hard time staying awake. I was so exhausted and chilled by the time I got back to my cottage, I got in bed under the covers and slept until dinnertime.
