PA128/A/08 Protecting The Bog Habitat That Bites

By Patrick McGurn, Countryside Management Branch Adviser, DARD

One of the aims of agri-environment schemes is to help farmers protect a range of different habitats, ranging from species rich wet grassland to blanket bog. This protection is not only for the visual impact of these habitats on the landscape but also for the large numbers of different species that have adapted in order to survive.

One such group of plants is the native insect eating plants. These plants have the ability to entrap, digest and absorb small insects to supplement their food requirements. Some non-native plants such as the Pitcher plant, originally from North America estate gardens. They are now found in some Irish bogs, particularly in the Connemara area of Co. Galway and in Peatlands Park near Dungannon.

There are three groups of native insect eating plants, the butterworts, the sundews and bladderworts and can be seen in some of bogs, grasslands and lakes of Ireland. The bladderworts, with a yellow flower like a snap dragon, are found in ditches, bog-holes and lake margins. In its roots are bladders that act like traps. Animals, such as water fleas and even young tadpoles brush against trigger hairs connected to a trapdoor, which when released sucks in the prey, closing the trapdoor after it. The whole process takes only ten to fifteen thousandths of a second. The bladder traps are recognised as one of the most sophisticated structures in the plant kingdom.

Sundews and butterworts have a different catching technique. Both have attractive flowers which attract insects, but it is in the leaves that the poor insects meet their end. The sundew leaf has hairs with glands at the end which secretes a sticky substance, catching any insects that lands. Once trapped, the plant then digests the insect obtaining nitrogen to make protein for its own growth. Sundews can be found in many of our wet bogs, however due to their small size they are not easily seen.

Butterworts are a much more visible plant, their pale green leaves forming the shape of a star standing out in bog vegetation. They too have glands on their leaves but not the characteristic hairs of the sundew. The insect literally sticks to the leaf before being digested by the plant.

These specially adapted plants show the importance and diversity of our bog habitats. The plants have adapted to the very low level of fertility in the soil.  Protection of such habitats is vital for such plants to survive. Agri-environment schemes are helping to keep habitats for a wide range of species.   These “flesh-eating” plants only survive in conditions of very low fertility so no extra fertility is allowed when a landowner enters an agri-environment scheme.   

The control of scrub is also an important factor under these schemes to prevent the shading out of the plants. It is also important that areas where these plants are present are grazed but at a level causing minimum ground disturbance.  With the right conditions these unique plants will survive and continue to enrich the imagination of children, writers and the farming community.  

For information on the Countryside Management Scheme contact your local DARD office.

All media enquiries to DARD Press Office, tel: 028 9052 4619.