In working with biomes at the very beginning of this column on plants in RPGs, I mentioned wetlands in passing and added that the plants growing in these locales deserved their own article.

This would be it.

Wetlands, be them swamps, marshes, or fens, seem to always be included in fantasy settings, and some science fiction ones too. Everybody loves them. The vegetation makes the marsh, though, whether green and viney, reedy and open, or misty and filled with the corpses of dead trees. All have their shining moments in adventure and the better you can describe the vegetation, the more life you breathe into your biome.

Trouble is that in order to have the perfect setting, a lot of factors are involved and not all of them fair to the creative genius that is the gamemaster. You want mist? Well, now you need condensation, which means cooler air. There goes your constantly hot humid swamp. Super-huge vines crisscrossing the waterscape? Not likely, unless there’s a solid ground for the plants to root in. At least it means the water will be shallow more often than not. Sure the gamemaster can make it up as he goes, but knowing the basics means that your cheats will have built-in explanations to back you up.

Wetlands are described as stands of water that can support aquatic plants. Of all ecosystems, wetlands have the highest diversity of all ecosystems and can come in fresh water or saltwater varieties. Many wetlands are not constantly wet and have a dry cycle. They are found everywhere from the tundra and alpine biomes to the hottest regions near the equator.

Marshes

Freshwater marshes are inland areas with one to six feet of standing or slow-moving water, containing perennials of flowers and grasses, and bushes rather than trees. Marshes are dependent on rainfall, runoff, and flooding. During long or excessively hot summers, marshes can dry out, leaving pools in the thick mud. Flora consists of many hydrophytes—plants built for shallow water—and many types of emergent plants (plants that have roots in the muddy underwater but stick up) like sedges, cattails, reeds, and rushes.

Types of plants: Cattails, sedges, bulrushes, reeds, loosestrifes, arrowhead, water lilies, blue flag, duckweed (floating on surface), and pondweed and waterweed (below surface).

Swamps

Swamps consist of slow-moving streams or rivers, or isolated depressions, or places that flood deeply. There are generally more trees and shrubs than perennials. There are usually two types of swamps: forest and shrub. Forest swamps have more trees and plants and the swamps is covered with old leaves. Shrub swamps are dominated by grasses, algae, reeds, and many different shrubs. The tropical mangrove swamp is one of the very few places that has trees tolerant of brackish water. In Africa there are swamps dominated by Papyrus. It is called a swamp due to its fair deepness and its lack of peat deposits.

Trees: Red maple, silver maple, Elm, willow, OR Eastern white cedar, Tamarack, and white pine.

Shrubs: Speckled Alder, Winterberry holly, Labrador Tea, Sweet gale

Herbaceous swamp plants: Blue Flag, marsh marigold, water arum, cardinal flower, orchids, ferns

Bogs

A bog is a peat-accumulating wetland originally formed from slow-moving rivers, shallow lakes, and bad run-off. They are generally found where it is cold and acidic and can be seen near coastlines. After forming, most of a bog’s water comes from precipitation and they usually have no intake or outflow. Water quality is poor and plant decay is slow. Unique plants, such as Venus flytraps and pitcher plants, grow in bogs, along with acidic-loving plants such as heaths, evergreens, and mosses.

Peatland shrubs: leatherleaf, sweet gale, Labrador tea, cranberry

Peat mosses: Sphagnum

Herbaceous plants: Pitcher plant, round-leafed sundew

Trees: On slightly drier land around bog: Tamarack, Black Spruce.

Specific Types of Wetlands

There are more types of marshes, swamps, and bogs than you can shake a stick at. Here are some that you may come across in your adventures.

Aapa mire: Also called a “string bog” it’s a boreal peatland found on a slope, resulting in ribs in the topography divided into flarks (lower strips) and strings (higher ground). Usually the outer areas are higher than the middle, producing large branching wetlands without trees covered by fens; generally the aapa mire has an open area in the middle. In the spring, the snow melt collects in the aapamire, making it more like a lake. The higher outer edges have pine bogs and fens, although swamp pine is rare. Palsa bogs are aapa mires with frozen centers. Plants include shrubs, grasses, and mosses on the hummocks between the flarks, and the edges of flarks have continuous stands of sphagnum moss and sedges. Within the fens of the aapa mires are orchids. These places host a rich diversity of birds. Natives used these places for picking berries, hunting, and for collecting bog grasses for cattle fodder. In many places these areas are dammed to kill of the Sphagnum and allow the hay to grow.

Alpine snow glade: a marshy clearing between slopes above the timberline mark in the mountains. Usually a place of temporary snow melt in the spring. In the spring, wetland plants in the alpine regions quickly flower to make the best of the temporary situation. Flora consists of low-lying plants that form cushions and include sundews, lilies, gentians, sedge, buttercups, mountains daisies, and sphagnum.

Backwater: a body of water in which the flow is slowed or turned back by an obstruction such as a bridge or dam. Flora develops the same as most swamps.

Bay wetlands: Also known as whale wallows or bay swamps, found along the coastline and have raised sandy rims, probably caused by receding glaciers. Closer to the tidal areas, wild rice is prominent, as is arrow arum, arrowhead, cattails, pickerelweed, splatter dock, rose mallow, and phragmite. Further back from the saltwater, the wetlands hold a shrub layer of buttonbush, swamp rose, elderberries, mountain laurels, blueberries, strawberry bushes, alders, maples, poison ivy, and winterberries. Also found are skunk cabbages, jack in the pulpit, groundnuts, dodder, and ferns.

Bayou or Slough: A creek or open area within a swamp. Most of the bayous have murky waters. Cypress and baldcypress trees are prominent with their trunks thickening into “knees” at the water’s surface. Between the bayous are swamps and marshes.

Billabong: Means “dead creek.” Australian term for a stagnant oxbow lake generally filled with crocodiles and usually muddy.

Carrs: British fen, or a fen that has been around long enough to support trees like willow and alder. Typically filled with sedges, rushes, and reeds.

Cataract bog: Large domelike rock outcroppings force groundwater to the surface. Water sheets over the rock surface, creating moss aprons.

Cienegas: Wet soggy places, often fed from springs or geologic formations that force the water to the surface.

Dambo: shallow, grass-covered depression on the African plateau which is full during the rainy season and usually forms the headwater of a stream. Marshy at the edges and the headwater, swampy towards the middle and downstream.

Fens: Fens are formed from high water tables, usually supplied by an alkaline spring. They are more productive than bogs and contain sedges and rushes. As trees fill it in the wetland moves from fen to carr.

Inselbergs: Large outcrops of granite or gneiss rock that water flows over consistently. Often found in tropical conditions. Trees are small, such as the Aloe or Bromelaid family members, the flowrs consist mostly of orchids, and many of the tiniest plants are predatory on protozoa. Often very seasonal.

Kettlehole Bog: Glacial action produced deep holes that fill with water to become mini-bogs surrounded by sphagnum, which makes these wetlands acidic. Evergreens, orchids, grasses, and insectivorous plants all make kettlehole bogs their home.

Mangrove Swamp: Also known as mangals. Salty or brackish marsh dominated by mangroves.

Marl Bog: Heavily calcified fens with grasses, insectivorous plants, and orchids, surrounded by a layer of shrubs including cinquefoil and evergreens are prominent.

Mire or Quagmire: low-lying wetland of deep soft soil or mud that sinks underfoot. Another name for peatland.

Moors: originally peat bogs dominated by heathers. Now names hill tops with similar soil.

Moss: Scottish name for a raised bog.

Muskegs: Like moors, but add spruce and move to Canada.

Paperbark wetland: Salty or brackish swamp dominated by paperbarks.

Peat bog: Decay is retarded producing peat. Sphagnum moss is prevalent. Although a peat bog will generate gas when stepped in, most peat bogs are not smelly like some believe.

Pocosin: upland swamp of the coastal plain dominated by fire-adapted shrubs and trees.

Raised bog: Sphagnum is so prevalent that the surface of the bog is raised above the surrounding habitat, by up to a few meters.

Riparian Marsh: Riparian marshes are found along rivers, streams, and lakes and helps absorb access water during flooding and releases water during droughts. Water-loving trees include willows, alders, birches, and some oaks.

Saltwater Marsh: Found along the coasts, saltwater marshes fill with the high tide and dry out during low tide. Glassworts and Cord Grasses are often the first species to take on a salt marsh, followed by Sea Lavenders, Sedges, and Rushes.

Savannah: Used in some places to describe a wet meadow.

Seep: A place where water is oozing through the ground, often down a slope. Leaves a darker patch of soil.

Shallow Open Water: In complete vegetative wetlands, such as marshes, the shallow open water would be the slightly deeper regions where there are no emergent plants, but can still contain plenty of free-floating hazards. This would be the narrow path where a boat could travel. It is also used to describe small sloughs, beaver ponds, potholes, and ditches that seasonally fill up with water.

Swale: A wet low point, often in dune habitats. Contains predominantly grasses.

Vernal pools: Low areas that hold water for a few months during the spring.

Types of Plants

Emergents: Plants that grow out of the water that are roots in the underwater soil.

Floating Plants: Those plants that have adapted to float their leaves on top of the water.

Submergents: Plants adapted to live completely underwater.

Water Plants Used for Food

Wild rice
Water caltrop
Chinese water chestnut
Indian Lotus
Water spinach
Watercress
Water mimose, Water mimosa
Taro
Rice
Bullrush, Cattail
Water-pepper
Wasabi

Other plants living near or in water include blueberries, cranberries, and mints.

Gaming in Wetlands

Adventures and wetlands go hand-in-hand. From the Dagobah System to the Bog of Eternal Stench, swamps and marshes make their way into every tale of travel. But not EVERY swamp has to be one gigantic maze of towering trees and swinging vines.

Know your Season and Climate

Wherever your party is, if it’s springtime there, it’s probably going to be wet even if only temporarily. Exceptions of course would be the desert, where the rainy season is in the winter. The higher the elevation, or the more north the characters are, the more likely there will be mists and fog.

Reasons to Go Into Swamps

Ruins: Due to changes in climate (Heavy rainy season) or geography (river gets jammed), it is very possible for a hall or castle to be partially submerged in a creepy swamp.

Someone important gets lost: Marshlands were very important to earlier civilizations for food and medicine.

Hermits: Lots of need-to-know people disappear into the wetlands to get away from it all.

Getting into the Marshlands

On foot or horseback: Sometimes you gotta get to where you’re going quickly, and a little water won’t stop you. This is just a “light” hazard, as the characters soak their feet trying to get from point A to point B.

Boats/flotation devices: Especially in swamps and bayous, the watercraft must navigate the deeper waters. Requires a skilled boatman to successfully wander the swamps.

Dangerous Hazards of the Wetlands

Sinkholes: Places where the water abruptly gets deep or the mud becomes soft and sucks the characters in.

Wildlife: In more tropical and semi-tropical regions, characters can find man-eating animals such as crocodiles, alligators, big cats, snakes, bears, and even wolves. Insects swarm in the thousands, especially in wetlands that last only part of the year.

Disease: The marshy regions of still waters play host to the mosquito and other biting bugs that can cause anything from allergic reactions to malaria.

Fantasy Hazards: The mists of the northern marshlands hold the will-o-the-wisp, giant carnivorous plants, and swamp-things.

Coming up Next: Weeds as Urban Vegetation, or After the Apocalypse.