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Plants Adapted to Various Types of Soil

CONDITIONS A VERY important factor in determining the sorts of plants adapted to any specific location is the soil type. By soil type is meant the relative acidity or alkalinity of the soil elements, the relative fineness of the soil particles, and the relative state of dryness of the soil material. All of these conditions overlap and combine with one another and produce soil types which are favourable for certain groups of plants and unfavourable for other groups. The exact physiological reasons why a plant should succeed so much better on one soil type than on another is seldom exactly understood; but practical experience has helped to solve many problems and to bring out many interesting facts. Plants adapted to boggy soils are likely to be shallow-rooted like the elm, and they are able to withstand a soil condition which is poorly aerated and almost invariably acid. In fact, a pond full of alkaline or limy water will generally be found practically devoid of plant life, while in an acid pond plants thrive so that they gradually displace the water as in sphagnum bogs, which were open ponds at one time but have lost that character through the excessive growth of plants. In a true bog there is practically no free drainage except during the spring thaw or flood time.

Plants adapted to bog gardens are called bog plants. Perhaps the most prominent of these perennials are the different varieties of the lady-slipper and the pitcher plant. One of the most essential things for the success of bog garden plants is to have a moist condition which does not vary to any marked degree. It is much better to have the ground surrounding the roots of these plants over-saturated than to have the degree of moisture become too much depleted, as the water table throughout the entire area of the bog garden should be maintained at a constant level and at the same time the water should not be allowed to become stagnant. If the area which is being developed as a bog garden does not naturally possess a growth of certain plants which one knows to be indigenous to bog areas then investigation should be