This is an image that I’ve been trying to get for over two decades.

The picture above shows a couple of wetland habitats. The area nearest the camera is the seep of a habitat known as a fen. As the name suggests, the seep is where water seeps from the gravel hill located behind the camera. (You can see a similar hill in the far distance.) This is a hanging fen because the seep is backed up against a hill.

That little stream running out of the seep (near the top) feeds water into another wetland habitat know as a sedge meadow. The term “meadow” can be misleading because, when I think of a meadow, I think of grasses and flowers where people can frolic in the afternoon sun, maybe hold a picnic. But if you tried that here, you’d likely need rescuing after you and your checkered tablecloth get stuck in magnetic mud. And it should come as no surprise that the dominant plant in a sedge meadow is the sedge.

The gravel gives the water a high alkaline content, and not every plant can tolerate that kind of chemistry. Therefore, the flowers can be uncommon or rare. Here we have Ohio goldenrod, sphynx lady tresses orchid (two spikes of white flowers), and Grass-of-Parnassus (whitish flowers sprinkled throughout the seep).