When the last of the glaciers retreated from North America, they left behind the lakes, cliffs, gorges and watercourses familiar to Adirondack adventurists.
North of Tupper Lake, they created something different—a 500-acre highland depression with no way for water to flow in or out. Nor was there any groundwater with nutrients. This expanse became something of a biological black hole, where life would have to develop an unconventional bag of tricks to thrive.
None of the traditional Adirondack flora—hemlock, ferns, hobblebush, maple, blueberries—were up to the task. Instead, the spoon-like depression filled with botanical oddballs: plants whose dead branches became storage tanks for surplus water, cold-blooded killers
