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Water

wednesday July 4, 2012

In these times of extreme heat there is nothing better than to be near, on or in a waterbody. In Quebec there are over 500,000 identified lakes (there are probably more than one million in total), and 130 000 watercourses, including 4 500 rivers.
The greatest of these lakes is the Caniapiscau reservoir (4 318 km²) larger than the U.S. state of Rhode Island, our largest natural lake, the Mistassini lake (2 335 km²) is larger than Luxembourg.

Our rivers are not to be outdone, some are over 800 km long, ten are more than 400 km long. But do not forget the most majestic of our waterways, the St-Lawrence River. With a length of 1 140 km, the majority in Quebec, the St. Lawrence is rhe river with the greatest flow of water in the world.
All these water bodies are home of a flora of great diversity.

There is first of all the plants that tolerate salt spray, of course they are found along the river and Gulf of St. Lawrence, for example the Beach Pea and the Hooker's iris

Some plants are downright aquatic, ie, they must have a submerged part, this is the case of the Small yellow pond-lily, the Common Water-Plantain and the Wild calla.

Some still are semi-aquatic, they thrive better with their bases immersed, like the Yellow marsh marigold, the Eastern skunk cabbage, the Jack-in-the-pulpit and the Harlequin blue flag.

Others thrive on the banks of water bodies as the Marsh cinquefoil and the White turtlehead.

There are also plants that need a special environment found most of the time adjacent to water bodies: bogs, in wet bogs we can find plants such as the Northern pitcher plant. In dry bogs, we can see the Small-flowered agalinis or the Nodding ladies'-tresses that can withstand complete immersion.