centerpiece is a walk-through 

 diorama of nightfall along the 

 Roanoke River bottomlands, 

 complete with springtime sounds, 

 special lighting effects and plant 

 and animal specimens. 



On a nearby wall, wetland scenes 

 flash in time with the chirps, croaks 

 and rustlings of wildlife. A greater 

 siren buoys in an aquarium. It looks 

 like an eel, but a closer look reveals 

 that it's a salamander, short-legged 

 and decorated with ruffled external 

 gills and skin like black suede. 

 Elsewhere, videotapes take viewers 

 on-site with ecologists who interpret 

 the natural history of the different 

 freshwater wetlands. A remote- 

 control microscope swings tiny pond 

 life — paper-thin spotted flatworms, 

 tentacled hydras, blood-sucking 

 leeches, predatory dragonfly nymphs 

 — onto a screen for up-close inspec- 

 tion. A nearby monitor explains how 

 the diversity of wetland life includes 

 more than can be seen with the 

 naked eye. 



Through these and other dis- 

 plays, museum visitors can tour six 

 varieties of freshwater wetlands. 



River wetlands are formed as 

 rivers change course during their 

 lifetime, leaving behind a rolling 

 landscape of ridges and old channels 

 that fill during floods. These rich 

 wetland habitats support a diversity 

 of plants and wildlife, including black 

 bears and wood ducks that nest in old 

 tree cavities. Unique to these areas 

 are the ancient cypresses that have 

 been discovered growing in the 

 wetlands of rivers such as the Black. 

 Bottomland hardwood forests are a 

 common type of river wetland found 

 in the North Carolina landscape. 



Freshwater marshes are 



perhaps the most familiar type of 

 freshwater wetland. They range from 

 the simple roadside ditch with cattails 

 to the vast edges of lakes, ponds 

 and rivers that sprout water lilies, 

 bulrushes, alder bushes, black willow 



and blue flag iris. Beavers are wet- 

 land engineers, damming streams 

 and flooding low-lying areas to cre- 

 ate much of this marshy habitat. 

 Freshwater marshes are important 

 habitat for migratory waterfowl and 

 other wildlife, including the greater 

 siren and the nonvenemous northern 

 water snake. 



Savannas are found in the 

 Coastal Plain next to pocosins. They 

 are noted in North Carolina for their 

 unusual diversity, supporting as many 

 as 50 plant species per square meter. 

 Savannas are open, grassy flatlands 

 with sparse cover of mostly longleaf 

 pines. The area where they meet po- 

 cosins is called an ecotone, where the 

 largest number of rare species is found, 



22 JULY/AUGUST 1995 



