Mainly on the Plain: Botany and Bugs edition

 There is a wonderful group of native plant lovers called the North American Native Plant Society that I hang out with.  Every year we go on botany forays, attend workshops and host tables at eco-festivals across Ontario.  Our annual plant sale in May is great! I have been talking about the Alvar so much that they wanted to come and see for themselves.  We got together with naturalist Bob Bowles in Spring of 2006 for an excursion. 

As a native plant lover and gardener, we are compelled to bring home seed from plant forays, this can be very detrimental to an endangered habitat.  Please refrain from doing this, unless there is a massive quantity, and then take only a few, the standard is not more than 10%.  This is also true of the 'pavement' on the Alvar.  I have been in groups where people are compelled to bring home a piece of the alvar as a souvenir, this is not doing you or the habitat any good.  What use is one piece of limestone pavement to a backyard in Toronto?

This was a very delicate habitat and we had to be very careful with every step we took, as the Vesper's sparrows and Meadowlarks build their nests on the ground there.  Please do not venture onto the pavement without a guide that is knowledgeable about this habitat.  Eco-traffic is having an impact here as well as in other unique places .  

As Bob took us through the true Alvar pavement (bare limestone with mosses, lichens and small shrubs) I was amazed at the smells around me.  I looked down and realized that we were walking gingerly over Deer Moss intermixed with Wild Bergamot, Virginia saxifrage, Balsam Ragwort, Indian Paintbrush and of course Prairie Smoke!.

The first time that I ventured to this area, NE of Lake Simcoe,, I joined Bob Bowles on an eco-tour of the Alvar called ," Birds, Botany and Butterflies" in June 2003.  It was wonderful! This was the first time that I had ever seen fields of Prairie Smoke (Geum trifolium) in bloom!  This plant is widespread in prairie provinces, though rare in Ontario.

Some alvar wildflowers are annuals that set seed during the short, we season thereby ensuring their reproductive success even during a drought.  Others are perennials that have large underground root systems enabling them to reach moisture deep down, often in crevices.

With over 29 different species of sedges, 12 asters, 5 goldenrod, 7 violets, 5 buttercups, 6 cinquefoil, 6 speedwell, 9 ferns and 29 native grasses, as swell as 5 species of orchids, the Carden Alvar is a mecca for botanists!  Some of the rarities, as well as the species that I have mentioned before are Prairie Smoke, Early Buttercup, Shrubby Cinquefoil, Balsam Ragwort, False Pennyroyal, Small skullcap, Cooper's milk vetch, Hairy beardtongue, Fragrant sumac as well as 4 specie of hawthorn including Dodge's hawthorn.  Of course the signature umbrella shaped tree is the While Elm.

The perennial grasses of which Tufted hair grass and Poverty oat grass are the most dominant, die off above ground in the winter.  Large stands of Little bluestem, a grass commonly found on the prairies occur here in a few areas. To the delight of botanists, 2 patches of Prairie Dropseed , a provincially rare grass, have been identified here.

Bob led us on an impromptu natural history lesson as he suddenly stopped the vehicle as he came across a Smooth green snake.  Eagle Eye Bob spotted it on the side of the road.  Bob has this amazing quality to look at things with fresh eyes no matter how many times he may have seen it.  It is his child like curiosity and wonder of the natural world that makes him such a wonderful teacher and steward of the natural world.

The mammals are also wonderful in this area.  I got up close and personal with a porcupine as she allowed me to photograph her in her nest in the tree.  There are also Black bear in the area.  We were coming out of a wooded area after a bird count when 2 other members of our team came running towards us asking if we were o.k.  Just seconds before 2 black bears came running out of the same bush, they were likely spooked by us!

After the pavement, Bob took us into a beautiful woodland with think moss covering the bedrock.  Along with the bizarre Walking Fern, characteristic species of trees include the Eastern White Cedar, Eastern Red Cedar, Jack Pine and Bur Oak.  Spring peepers were abundant in this magical place.

A few years ago I started coming to the Alvar's annual Butterfly and Dragonfly counts.  I had no idea that there were so many types of butterflies and dragonflies/damselflies!  Because of Carden's wetlands, it is home to unique dragonflies such as Calico pennant, and Dragonhunter. My favourite was the Variable Dancer, a purple damsel!  The butterflies that are unique to this place include Meadow Fritillary, Pearl Crescent, Baltimore Checkerspot, Olympia Marble and Tawny Crescent. The butterflies that we saw where Monarch, White Admiral, Black Swallowtail, Meadow Fritillary, Canadian Tiger Swallowtail, Painted Lady, American Snout, Orange Sulphur, Eastern Tailed Blue, Silvery Blue, Tailed Blue, Acadian Hairstreak, Eyed Brown, Columbine Duskwing,  Wild Indigo Duskywing and many many Skippers.  Moths seen were the Cecropia, Lo and Luna moths.  

The dragons and damsels that we saw were: White Faced Meadowhawk, Widow Skimmer, Dot tailed Whiteface, Chalk fronted Corporal, Eastern Pondhawk, Ruby Meadowhawk, Spotted Skimmer, Slaty skimmer, Ebony Jewelwing, Orange bluet, Tule Bluet, Stream Bluet as well as Amber Winged Spreadwing and of course the Variable Dancer!

Herps are also present here.  Eastern Ribbon Snake, Blanding' Turtles and Milk Snake can be found, as well as Spring Peepers, American Toad , Leopard Frog, Green Frog and Bullfrog., and of course the Smooth Green Snake!

Ontario Nature, as well as the Nature Conservancy of Canada host wonderful Volunteer for Nature event that enable us to participate in inventory, boardwalk building, invasive species removal and trail maintenance.  This is how I originally became involved and their opportunities keep bringing me back here as swell as to other properties throughout Ontario.

Alvars are among the most species rich communities in the world at such a small scale.  Alvars appear to have a much higher degree of specialist and endemic species than other habitat types in the Great Lakes region.  In particular the unique conditions in alvars appear to drive evolutionary processes and speciation in invertebrates.  One report has estimated that up to 1000 species of insects may be unique to Alvar habitats and several species of terrestrial molluscs are only known at alvar sites. The Carden Alvar was given the highest conservation ranking by the International Alvar initiative and identified as high significance by a report on Ontario Alvars.  

I hope you enjoyed this throwback to 20 years ago!  Hoping 2026 will see me back there again!