While there are many things to do in the Laurel Highlands, like hiking and biking, keep an eye out for Spruce Flats Bog and the plants that grow there.
Spruce Flats is a rare high-elevation bog that formed in a mountaintop depression at 2,720 feet above sea level. It’s part of a 305-acre wildlife area in Forbes State Forest.
It’s easy to get to from a parking lot in Laurel Summit State Park in Westmoreland County. A short walk (see the map below) leads to a boardwalk that takes visitors out into the heart of the bog, making it easy to explore while protecting this fragile ecosystem.
The bog is a peaceful landscape filled with mosses, grasses, low shrubs and acidic water, creating the perfect habitat for unique plants and wildlife. As you stroll along the boardwalk, be sure to keep an eye out for the bog’s fascinating carnivorous plants. They may be small, but these remarkable organisms are some of the bog’s most interesting natural features and well worth spotting.
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Carnivorous Plants?!
“Carnivorous plants are predatory flowering plants that attract, trap, and digest animals—primarily insects—to extract vital nutrients,” according to the International Carnivorous Plant Society. This means that the plants primarily rely on protein as food.
These types of plants are found all over the world in places with nutrient-poor, acidic and consistently wet habitats, like bogs.
Two of the most common carnivorous plants at Spruce Flats Bog are the purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea L.) and the roundleaf sundew (Drosera rotundifolia).
Purple pitcher plant
The purple pitcher plant, also known as the saddle flower, is a broad-leaved plant that spreads by short rhizomes. The leaves have small purple-looking veins and can grow to 6-12 inches in length.
Pitchers bloom from about May through August, peaking from May to June. This plant is most known for its hollow leaves, or pitchers, that give the plant its name.
These plants trap and digest flying and crawling insects in the pitcher-shaped leaves. The pitcher fills with rainwater, attracting insects with sweet nectar on the outside rim of the leaves
Then, since the lining of their walls has stiff, down-pointing hairs, the insects get stuck inside and cannot climb out. Eventually, the insect drowns and decomposes, releasing its nutrients to the plant.
Purple pitcher plants are widespread in eastern North America, appearing mostly in sphagnum bogs and other wetlands.
Roundleaf sundew
The roundleaf sundew is a small but fascinating carnivorous plant.
Its leaves sit on slender stalks and are covered with tiny red hairs that produce a sticky liquid, making them look as though they’re covered in sparkling dewdrops. These sticky droplets help the plant trap insects for nutrients.
In the summer, the sundew produces delicate white or pale pink flowers that grow in a one-sided cluster, or raceme. Each flower has five petals and measures about ¼ to ⅓ of an inch across. The plant typically grows between 2 and 10 inches tall and can be found in acidic, peaty bogs throughout northern North America.
These plants catch prey by using sugar-filled liquid to attract small insects, like ants. The sugary liquid traps these insects, and the leaves then curve inwards, further ensnaring them. The carnivorous plant then secretes enzymes to digest insects for their nutrients. Unlike the purple pitcher plant, sundews are much better insect hunters. They usually capture about 5 insects a month.
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