Peat-bog of Poço das Rãs

Share Image

The peat bog of Poço das Rãs is in Covelães village, in the municipality of Montalegre. It is an excellent example of a well-structured bog, where different plant communities are distributed in space according to a humidity gradient in soil: the water body, the peat bog itself, damp scrubs and, on the outskirts, dry scrub.

Peatlands are plant communities that thrive in wet areas. Soil drenching associated with the lack of oxygen prevents the complete decomposition of organic matter that accumulates and forms the peat (a natural coal). When the organic matter does not fully decompose, the soil becomes poor in nutrients and the vegetation cover adapts to such conditions: mosses of the genus Sphagnum and species of high floristic value such as the cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium) and the carnivorous round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) and the Portuguese butterwort (Pinguicula lusitanica) that compensate for the lack of minerals in the soil feeding on insects.