WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH BOGS?

Sweet, sweet sphagnum

Sphagnum is a group of mosses that are also known as peat mosses, and as a group they have a special ability to retain water at a high proportion to their dry weight (up to 26 times their dry weight). This ability to retain water, combined with the chemicals in their cell walls, allow many species of Sphagnum to manipulate their environment to form bogs and peatlands.

The bogs that are formed from Sphagnum are critical for a number of reasons. They are often hotspots for rare species of plants and animals, like the many carnivorous plants that are found in bog environments. Sphagnum bogs are also important in regard to climate change because they store more carbon in their ecosystems than any other kind of vegetation, making them valuable resources to keep carbon out of the atmosphere. Lastly, products from bogs are important in agriculture as a soil additive, and have been used historically as sources of energy.