Aesthetics in the swamps

Abstract

Wetlands are misunderstood landscapes, typically experienced negatively as swamps, sloughs, and mires. Understanding wetlands ecology, knowledge of specialized flora there, their unusual adaptations, and their diversity can enrich aesthetic appreciation of these landscapes. Aesthetic experiences include a sense of the primeval, admiration for ingenious and odd solutions to the challenges of wetlands living, of life persisting in the midst of its perpetual perishing.