On an outcrop en route to “Piggy Mountain” on Sep. 22, 2025. The bronze-coloured low shrubs are Broom Crowberry. There are several patches of green Broom Crowberry.
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Summer “bronzing” of Broom Crowberry (Corema conradii), similar to the colour changes in winter, was common in the more sun-exposed, water stressed areas of the Jack Pine/Broom Crowberry barrens on Piggy Mountain on Sept. 22, 2025; it was the driest summer on record over much of Nova Scotia.
Revisiting sites with such plants on Oct 2, 2026 revealed the bronzed plants did not survive.
If more such droughts and associated loss of Broom Crowberry occur in future, that could pose a new threat to the long term conservation of our “globally rare, nationally unique” Jack Pine/Broom Crowberry barrens. Read more