Marsh Plants 



343 



use also the leaves of marsh plants for building materials. 

 Several turtles and water snakes are permanent resi- 

 dents as are also a few of the frogs. Most of the frogs 

 visit the marsh 

 pools at spawn- 

 ing time, making 

 the air resound 

 with their nup- 

 tial melodies. 

 The spotted sal- 

 amander is the 

 earliest amphi- 

 bian to spawn 

 there. Though 

 the adult is but 

 a transient, its 

 larvae remain in 

 the marsh pools 

 through the sea- 

 son. 



The plants are 

 the same kinds 

 found in the 

 marginal zone of 

 the pond border, 

 but here they of- 

 ten cover large 

 areas in a nearly 

 pure stand. In 

 our latitude in the more permanent waters, the 

 dominant species usually are cat -tail, phragmites, 

 bur-reed and the soft-stemmed bulrushes; in the 

 shoals that dry up each year they are sweet flag, 

 sedges, manna grass and the hard-stemmed bul- 

 rushes. Such plants as these have strong inter- 

 laced roots and runners that form the basis of the marsh 



Fig. 202. Tear-thumb. 



