In October the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania went on a field trip to Christner Bog on Mt. Davis, the highest mountain (actually a plateau) in Pennsylvania. We were admonished to bring waterproof boots so I wore my best muck boots. They’re ankle high and they were not enough.
It rained so much this fall that the bog was over-full. I learned that day that plateau bogs are surrounded by a moat of deeper water. (Knee-high boots required!) It was a huge challenge to tiptoe on submerged branches and lumps to cross the moat.
On the other side of the moat, the water was still too deep for my boots so I stood on a hummock while everyone else explored the center of the bog.
They found lots of cool plants among the sphagnum moss. I looked down and found wild cranberries (Vaccinium oxycoccos).
So I picked one, shown at top.
I wish I’d opened the berry to see the air chambers that hold its tiny seeds.
Instead I dropped the berry in the moat on my way out, hoping an animal would eat it later.
I’d forgotten that cranberries float.
(photos by Kate St. John)
They also bounce. That’s how they separate the good ones from the bad ones. They roll them off a dump truck onto the ground, and those that bounce into the conveyor belt make it for sale. Or so I was told by someone who saw it being done that way in the ’80s.