Our camping excursion to the Highlands National Park on Cape Breton island offered a wide diversity of environments to explore. Lots of terrain had poor, thin soils and supported acidic "barrens", covered in heaths and moss.
The few black spruces are probably over 100 years old, and though barely 10 feet tall are covered in Usnea.
Heath groundcover
Reindeer moss
In places where the barrens got more soggy, fens developed and more specialized plants thrived, like this Sundew (Drosera intermedia, the spoonleaf sundew).
Pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea)
Dragon's mouth (Arethusa) orchid
Labrador tea (Ledum palustre)
Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) a.k.a. Buckbean
Local Larch (Larix)
Out by the coast, we find familiar friends.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)
A Campanula (C. rotundifolia, perhaps)
And, a bit further into the woods, a white bog orchid (Habenaria dilatata)
