WETLAND TYPES

MARSH
Continuously covered by at least 6" of water during growing season or often permanently, dominated by emergents.  Also can host aquatic species living in adjoining open water.
Marsh / Open Water Plant List (Week 1)          Marsh Plant List (Week 2)  

FLOODPLAIN
Also referred to as river floodplain and bottomland forest
seasonally flooded by a foot or more of water, dominated by deciduous hardwood trees along river banks.  Beneath the tree canopy a wide range of species can flourish especially facultative hydrophytes (organisms that can thrive under wet or dry conditions).
Floodplain plant list

SWAMPS
Hardwood swamp - dominated by deciduous trees; s wetland seasonally saturated to the surface or flood by up to a foot of water.
Shrub swamp - same as above but dominated by shrubs
Conifer Swamps - dominated by white cedar; often in with a limestone geology; soils are peat or muck and vary in ph; Tamarack dominates in acidic conditions, white cedar dominates in neutral to alkaline conditions; soils saturated during the growing seasons, standing water sometimes present.
Swamp Plant List

BOG
Characterized by a floating mat of vegetation which occurs along the shoreline of a lake or pond or which grows out from the shore over the surface.  Soils are generally acidic, saturated, peats.  Mat usually sphagnum moss.
Bog Plant List

MEADOWS
Soil is saturated and surface is exposed or covered by a few inches, dominated by emergents such as grasses, rushes, and members of Asteraceae family.  Soils are under water only for brief periods.
Types of meadows:
Wet meadows
sedge meadows
wet prairies

Meadow Plant List

Wet Meadows are underlain by poorly drained mucks and dominated by a mix of broad and narrow leafed herbaceous plants.  Soil is waterlogged but flooded only briefly.  Often form in recently disturbed areas
Wet Prairies are underlain by loams (or less frequently mucks).  Similar to a marsh but with water levels usually intermediate between a marsh and a wet meadow.  Commonly found along the margins of streams, rivers, and lakes in relict prairie regions
Sedge Meadows inland fresh meadows in which more then half of the dominance is contributed by sedges rather than grasses.  The substrates of sedges meadows are either peats or mucks.  Sedge meadows are thought to succeed (replace) emergent marshes and are succeeded themselves by shrub communities or swamps.

FEN
Found on sites with a steady trickle to flow of groundwater rich in bicarbonates.  Soil is alkaline.
Fen Plant List

PERSISTENT WETLANDS
surface consistently flooded such as a marsh

NONPERSISTENT WETLANDS
surface intermittently / seasonally flooded such as a wet meadow