The plants that live on our peatlands aren’t just any plants, they are all wonderfully unique and have adapted in incredible ways to survive and thrive on the harsh bog environment. But it turns out these plants aren’t just good at storing carbon and protecting our climate, they could also have potential benefits for our health.

Peatlands are wet, acidic and nutrient poor habitats that started forming thousands of years ago. Over millennia peat was formed from layers of partially decomposed surface vegetation, trapping and storing huge amounts of carbon. These seemingly hostile conditions are vital for the formation of peat and are partially created by one keystone peatland species: sphagnum moss.

Sphagnum moss is the backbone of a bog, the superhero of our peatlands. It creates the specific acidic conditions needed to form peat, but also creates the very peat itself. It can hold up to twenty times its own weight in water, which makes our peatlands wonderfully efficient at naturally mitigating flooding. In fact, it is this absorbent attribute that was employed for the war effort during World War One.

Adapting to the nutrient poor habitat, this predatory plant gets its food from a different source: insects. The sundew has hair-like tendrils on its leaves, each with a sticky dew-like droplet attached at the end. When a creepy crawly gets stuck on the sundew, it wraps these tendrils around its prey and releases an enzyme which slowly digests its dinner. But don’t worry, they’re only tiny, so we’re not on the menu.

Sundews have long been considered to be medicinal for their anti-inflammatory chemical properties. Throughout history sundew have been used to treat respiratory illnesses such as whooping cough and bronchitis, as it is believed that their anti-inflammatory properties can help thin and break up chest congestion. In folklore, sundews were thought to be quite the miracle workers and they were once mixed with milk and used to remove freckles and sunburn, as well as being considered to act as a ‘love potion’ when unknowingly popped into someone’s pocket.

There are plenty more fascinating bog plants that are also considered medicinal. Common cotton grass has been used in old world medicine for gastrointestinal ailments, bog myrtle for skin conditions and lesser bladderwort for bladder and kidney issues. These are just a few of the potentially beneficial plants that live on our bogs, but they might not be there forever.

Unfortunately, these precious peatland plants are at risk. In the latest ‘State of the World’s Plants and Fungi’ report by Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, an estimated 39.4% of the worlds plants and fungi are at risk of extinction due to climate change and habitat destruction*. Not only are these plants vital for the health of our peatlands, helping combat the dual nature and climate crisis, but they could have further benefits for our health. That is why the peatland restoration work that we do at the Lancashire Wildlife Trust is more important now than ever.

...an estimated 39.4% of the worlds plants and fungi are at risk of extinction due to climate change and habitat destruction*.

Thanks to funding from Klorane Botanical Foundation, we will be further restoring Little Woolden Moss, one of our lowland peatland nature reserves in Greater Manchester.

The funding will help us to further re-wet the previously drained peat by adding bunding, which helps keep the vital, life-giving water on the mossland. The funding will also allow us to plant more peatland specialist plants on the moss, bolstering the botany on the bog and helping protect these precious species.

*State of the World's Plants and Fungi | Kew