How2Day: Rare Plants in the Dismal Swamp

The Great Dismal Swamp, located in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, covers more than 111,000 acres of wetlands filled with a variety of flora and rare plants. The swamp's plant life falls into five major forest types, including cedars, cypress and sweetgum-oak forests. The Great Dismal Swamp also plays host to three non-forested types of plant communities, including marshes, a sphagnum bog and an evergreen shrub. Within these communities, a number of rare plants can be found.

One of the rarest ferns growing in America, the log fern thrives in the woods and swampy areas of the Great Dismal Swamp. The fern grows up to 48 inches in height with semi-evergreen, dark green fronds. The fronds consist of long, finely toothed leaflets. The short rhizomes of the fern spread in a creeping fashion. The rare plant can grow in gardens as long as it gets planted in acidic soil similar to that of the swamp. Otherwise, the plant stays light green when planted in alkaline soil. Log fern grows from spores, or it can be propagated by dividing the roots.

The rare Plukenet's flatsedge thrives in sandy woods, on sandhills and in flatwoods of the swamp. While the plant looks like other flatsedges, Pluentet's features inflorescence rays and dense spikes with reflexed spikelets growing at the top of the stems. The plant gets its name from Leonard Plukenet, one of the first botanists to describe North America's plants in the late 1600s. The native plant flowers from July through October in the swamp.

The rare sandywoods chaffhead thrives in the pine and scrub oak forests of the Great Dismal Swamp. The plant grows in dry, sandy areas where it produces striking, purplish-pink flowers from July through October. The native perennial plant grows up to 24 inches in height when grown in full sun.

One of the last remaining stands of longleaf pine in Virginia can be found in the Great Dismal Swamp. Also known as southern yellow pine, the tree takes between 100 to 150 years to reach its full size, often living to 300 years of age. The pine tree grows in flatwoods and sandhill ecosystems of the swamp where it thrives in the nutrient-poor soil. In the first 3 to 7 years of its life, the pine tree more closely resembles a tuft of grass rather than a tree. The tree develops a deep taproot system during these years, then starts to grow upright. Some of the Swamp's longleaf pine trees are currently used in a breeding program by the Virginia Department of Forestry to help restore the tree to its former range.

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