Shrub Swamp

Swamps are a type of wetland where the local plant community is dominated by trees and woody plants. Now reduced to small fragments, swamps formerly occupied large areas of level, poorly drained flats on the lake plain from Sandusky, Ohio, to Erie, Pennsylvania. 
 
In shrubs swamps, canopy cover is complete and dominated by red maple, silver maple, red ash, black ash, and American elm. Other trees include tupelo, black willow, peach-lead willow, eastern cottonwood, bur oak, swamp white oak, and shellbark hickory. 
 
Common understory shrubs include spicebush, winterberry, elderberry, and viburnum. Groundcover plant species include marsh violet, lizard’s tail, marsh marigold, arrow arum, turtlehead, wood reed, fringed loosestrife, and many sedges. 
 
Swamps are often critical breeding grounds for a diversity of wetland birds. Many of Ohio’s wetland communities are breeding homes for Neotropical species that migrate from Central and South America, returning to the warmer climate during winter months. 
 
In addition, vernal ponds in local swamps are home to wood frogs, spring peepers, spotted salamanders, Jefferson’s salamanders, long-eared bats, and black rat snakes.