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The Wildlife of Omand's Creek

The Study

The Flora

The Fauna

 

 

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The Wildlife of Omand's Creek - The Flora

By Doug Collicutt

(Click links for images.)

Results: The Flora of Omand's Creek

Format For Results

The findings of this study are presented mainly in the form of annotated lists of the various types of flora and fauna encountered. Numerical analysis was applied only to the results of the general surveys for birds. As the intent of this work was to provide an objective account of the wildlife along these urban waterways, discussion of these findings has been kept to a minimum.

Inventory Effectiveness

From April to October, 1992, 53 general surveys were conducted, amounting to approximately 80 hr of observations. Another 20 hours were spent gathering data in other surveys, so the time spent on data gathering amounted to about 100 hr total, or the equivalent of 12.5 working days over the course of 7 months. With this investment of time and the simple techniques employed the wildlife resources of this section of Omand's Creek were revealed to be quite significant. One hundred and seventy-four (174) species of plants and 88 species of vertebrate animals were recorded along this 1 km stretch of the creeks, totaling just 8.6 ha (21.5 acres) of land.

Flora of Omand's Creek

A total of 174 species of higher plants were recorded during this study. Mosses, algae and other lower plants were not considered in this work. The identified plants, listed in Table 3 (below) represent 57 different families. Common names are as in Looman and Best (1979). Only those plants identifiable at least to genus have been included. Plants identifiable only to genus were listed as unidentified (UID). Each species was assigned to one of six groups based on its growth form or habitat type:

Tree

Woody perennial which regularly exceeds 3 m in height

Shrub

Woody perennial usually less than 3 m in height (including woody vines)

Forb

Herbaceous (non-woody) plant not considered a grass, emergent or aquatic

Grass

Herbaceous "grass-like" plant not considered a forb, emergent or aquatic

Emergent

Herbaceous plant which grows near the water's edge, either partially submerged or in wet ground

Aquatic

Herbaceous plant that floats on the water's surface or is submerged

The relative occurrence of each species within each area of the study site is given in the columns to the right in Table 3. Plants were classed as:

Abundant (A)

Very numerous and a dominant part of the vegetation in at least part of the area

Common (C)

Numerous, but did not dominate any particular plant community

Occasional (O)

Represented by only a few specimens

The absence of a species in an area was denoted by a dash in the appropriate space (Table 3).

Table 2 summarizes the numbers of plant species recorded by areas and types. A general description of the vegetation of each part of the study site is given below. (The flora of the aquatic environment was not surveyed adequately enough to include in these descriptions.)

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Table 2. Summary of Plant Types. The number of species recorded overall, and for each area, by plant type is given. 

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Overall Vegetation Descriptions

AREA 1. This area supports a variety of plant communities. Near the water's edge, prairie cord grass, cattails, sandbar and pussy willows, and various sedges dominate. Higher up the creek banks a grassland community dominates. It consists of smooth brome, quack grass, Kentucky bluegrass and a variety of native prairie grasses such as big bluestem, green needle grass and spear grass, with various forbs including sweet clovers, Canada thistle, graceful goldenrod, crocus and yellow lady's slipper. Dense patches of snowberry occur throughout this area and there are small stands of young Manitoba maple, cottonwood and other trees scattered throughout. At the north end of Area 1 is a small woodland consisting of several medium sized Manitoba maple, American elm and peach-leaved willow trees, with various shrubs forming a dense underlayer.

Yellow Lady's Slipper along the railroad tracks.

AREA 2. Most of Area 2 was "redeveloped" in 1987 as part of the development of Bluestem Nature Park. One acre (0.4 ha) of prairie sod was transplanted to the park, 5 acres (2 ha) was seeded with tall grass prairie species, plugs of native tree and shrub species were transplanted to the park, and various wetland plants were transplanted into two specially created wetland sites. The upland area remains, however, dominated by a grassland community formed largely of smooth brome and quack grass. Most of the seeded area failed to establish with the desired species, although there is a variety of prairie species represented by scattered individuals, including big bluestem, Canada wild rye, gaillardia, narrow- leaved sunflower and black-eyed susan. Many of the planted or transplanted woody species failed to survive. Wetland areas along the creek hold a diverse array of plants including, cattails, prairie cord grass, tall manna grass, arrow head and sandbar willow.

Prairie Crocus in Bluestem Park | Big Bluestem grass, the namesake of the park.

AREA 3. This area was, until the early 1980's, a manicured parkland. The site has been allowed to "naturalize" through the cessation of mowing and other aspects of traditional park maintenance. The uplands consist of a grassland community, dominated by Kentucky bluegrass, smooth brome and quack grass with scattered forbs, including smooth aster, yarrow, Canada thistle and sow thistles. Medium to large American elm trees occur at regular intervals along the length of Area 3, along with ornamental shrub plantings containing red osier dogwood and lilacs. Dense stands of cattails dominate the wetland edge along the creek and extend across the entire creek in shallow spots.

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Table 3: Annotated list of the flora of Omand's Creek.

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Carry on for the Fauna of Omand's Creek

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