Can
you identify what's in this photo?
Each Wednesday morning
on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page
the Lutherlyn Environmental
Education Program posts a photo.
Readers
have all morning and afternoon
to
make their best guess about what the photo is.
Around
6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.
Each
week's What is it Wednesday post
will
also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog,
after it is posted on Facebook,
sometimes
with additional bonus information.
In
addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday
on the
Nature of Lutherlyn blog,
we
will be reposting old editions,
creating
a What is it Wednesday archive.
This
photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on
March 14, 2018.
And
the answer is....
This puddle of foam is caused by a naturally occurring
substance called saponin. Saponin is the substance used in soap to make it
foamy. Some plants naturally contain a lot of saponin.
Maple trees have a lot
of saponin in their bark. When it rains hard, the water washing over the bark
of the trees flushes out the saponin, causing the trees to foam.
Sometimes this foam also collects on the
surface of of streams. Seeing foam in a stream or on the ground does not
necessarily mean there is pollution – the foam might come from the trees and plants
in the area.
We spotted these puddles of saponin at the end of
the wettest February ever recorded in Western Pennsylvania (2018). We have had heavy rains this week too (May 2019) and have seen lots of saponin on the ground and in the streams!
To learn more about the surprising nature all around us with
LEEP check out http://lutherlyn.com/ee.
No comments:
Post a Comment