Eight distinct habitats include
century-old pine forests, abandoned open fields
scattered with wild flowers, 20 large bogs and
countless smaller bogs, fresh water brooks and
rivers, salt marshes, lagoons and estuaries.
The wide range of habitat types in the park
support 1600 species of highly diverse flora.
Uncommon plant species, such as the southern
twayblade, found in the timberland, carnivorous
pitcher plants, sundew and bladderwort growing
in small ponds and the rarest orchid in eastern
Canada surprise and delight the park’s
visitors.
Along the Kouchibouguac River,
the more humid conditions encourage mushrooms,
berries and wild flowers. In the wooded area
where logging, forest fires and agriculture
over the last 300 - 400 years have left only
remnants of the original forests, white spruce,
black spruce, balsam fir and tamarack predominate.
Where the ground is fairly open, trilliums,
trout lilies and bunchberries bloom. Marram
grass is the only plant that can initially colonize
the dunes, stabilizing the shifting sands and
enabling other species to become entrenched.
In slightly more established areas the searocket
and bayberry take hold. Bogs, which comprise
21% of the park’s total area, build up
layer upon layer of sphagnum moss and small
shrubs to form a living sponge. The 5 metres
of condensed layers of Kelly’s Bog over
the years have become peat.
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