This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s our diminutive and delectable denizens of the creek, our edible Shrimp: the Atlantic White Shrimp (Litopenaeus setiferus), the Northern Brown Shrimp (Farfantepenaeus aztecus), and the Northern Pink Shrimp (F. duorarum)
Here on Edisto Island we have three species of edible shrimp, the White Shrimp, the Brown Shrimp, and the Pink Shrimp. The White and Brown Shrimp are far more common, with White Shrimp being the most common. All three of these species are legal to harvest in South Carolina and taste basically the same. They’re all about the same size and look fairly similar too. Overall the White Shrimp is pale-gray with black tail tips, the Brown Shrimp is orange-brown with red tail tips, and the Pink Shrimp is kind of pink, sometimes, but usually more orange and it also, sometimes, has a darker red spot about halfway down its abdomen. There are some other more distinct morphological characteristics that set them apart but I won’t bore you with them here. (We also have a few species of Grass Shrimp, Palaemonetes spp., which are only an inch or two long, translucent, and live in our marshes and oyster reefs.) Shrimp are omnivores and will eat just about anything palatable to them. While young they are predominantly scavengers but become more predatory as they grow larger. Shrimp are an important part of our marine food web as they are eaten by just about everything.
Our Shrimps spend their youth in the estuaries of our tidal creeks before moving out into the shallows of the open ocean as adults. Brown and Pink Shrimps spawn in fall, their eggs hatch within a days or so, the larvae grow into miniature Shrimp, overwinter on the ocean floor, and then migrate into our tidal creeks in spring. White Shrimp conversely spawn in spring and so their larvae don’t overwinter. The larval Shrimp grow over the next few months in their cordgrass cradles. By summer, Brown and Pink Shrimp have reached at least finger length and will begin to head out to the open ocean to finish out their life cycle. White Shrimp will follow suit in late summer and early fall. Many local and regional factors affect a Shrimp’s departure time, chiefly their population levels in the creeks, rainfall upstream, and water temperature. If there are too many Shrimp in an estuary, then they leave earlier and smaller. If there is a lot of rainfall on the uplands there will be an excess of freshwater coming downstream, which will push our salt loving Shrimp out to sea earlier. If the shrimp aren’t overcrowded or if there is little rainfall, they may stay a month or longer in the creeks until water temperatures drop. Shrimp have short lifespans and rarely live for more than a year.
Shrimp are the most popular and profitable fishery in South Carolina as well as the whole United States. Shrimp are harvested commercial mainly with offshore trawling boats in summer and fall. Shrimp are also an extremely popular recreational fishery, open to South Carolina saltwater fishing license holders from May to mid-December. Shrimp aquaculture was once a burgeoning new business in the Lowcountry. In the 1980s, many shrimp farms popped up south of Charleston, with even a few on Edisto Island and along Toogoodoo Creek. These farms grew Shrimp in saltwater ponds for retail sale and many were profitable for a brief time. However on farms using tidal ponds, the potential for shrimp diseases to concentrate in the ponds and then be discharged into the estuaries, where this could harm native Shrimp populations, became a concern of the State. Additionally, heavy competition from overseas shrimp farms quickly appeared. These two factors halted and reversed the industry’s growth in South Carolina. By the mid-2000s, the shrimp farming industry had all but vanished from the Lowcountry and only a few farms still operate in South Carolina today.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we learning about the lesser known cousin of the prototypical fruit tree, Southern Crabapple (Malus angustifolia).
Southern Crabapple is a member of the Apple genus found throughout the Southeastern United States. In South Carolina it’s primarily seen within the coastal plain. It’s a large shrub bordering on small tree that’s partial to moist but well-drained soils along woodland edges and clearings. It will spread by its roots to create loose thickets but primarily disperses through seeds carried away by wildlife. Southern Crabapple has dark scaly bark and a compact growth form with a broad canopy. Its leaves are small, simple, and possess a toothed margin. Its stems occasionally are barbed with thorns. The stems of Southern Crabapple also have a feature called “spur twigs” which are short, thickened twigs growing from the side of the main stem. Spur twigs are an adaptation found mainly in fruit-bearing trees and these stems are where the flowers and fruits of the plant primarily emerge from. These spur twigs only grow a few fractions of an inch each year and, by staying short and thick, they keep the fruits close to the main vegetative stem. This lowers the overall weight of the limb and reduce strain on the limbs from wind. Thus helping prevent limb breakages when the plant is laden with fruit.
The easiest time to find a Southern Crabapple tree is in early spring, usually the latter half of March, when they let loose their buds and produce a profusion of flowers. The entire tree becomes smothered by a blanket of pale-pink petals. There are few other native trees that are as prolific a bloomer as Southern Crabapple. Like many fruit trees, these flowers rely on bees and other native pollinators to set fruit. The fruit of the Crabapple, as well as regular Apples, is a pome, a soft, fleshy fruit with several seeds tucked into its center. The fruits of Southern Crabapple are small, at about an inch across. They’re also hard and practically inedible for humans. However, the fruits can be cooked down to make preserves or fermented to make ciders. Additionally, these fruits are cherished by wildlife including deer, raccoons, foxes, turkeys, orioles, and mockingbirds. Southern Crabapple is commonly planted in food plots as means of attracting wildlife. There are many cultivars that have been developed for this native shrub in order to boost the value of its fruit for both wildlife and human consumption as well as to make it hardier or more ornamentally attractive.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s our one and only tail-wagging resident shorebird, the Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius).
The Spotted Sandpiper is a common shorebird that can be found throughout South Carolina. Most bird guides will tell you they are found around coastal South Carolina only during the winter, but here on the Sea Islands, we can spot these speckled shorebirds year-round. They solitarily patrol the shores of lakes, ponds, and tidal creeks across their range, where they probe the sediment for invertebrates and snack on any critters that linger on the surface. Here on Edisto, they’re most commonly found on the banks of tidal creeks and gutters at low tide or perched on docks and piers when the tide comes in. Spotted Sandpipers are hard to ignore as they often launch from the shore while uttering shrill, 2 or 3 note calls as they frantically fluctuate from fluttering to gliding just inches over the surface of the water. However, getting a good look at one while it’s still on the ground is a bit harder due to how skittish they are. But, when you do, they’re an easy bird to pick out.
The Spotted Sandpiper is a smaller shorebird, bigger than most peeps but smaller than a Red Knot or Ruddy Turnstone. The Dunlin is the closest size for comparison. Their bills and legs aren’t short but they aren’t really long either. Their neck is longer than most peeps but proportionately shorter than Yellowlegs or Willets. Given their unusually intermediate proportions, few other shorebirds resemble their physique. More distinctly, they have big eyes accentuated by a dark eye-stripe and white eyebrow. In summer, their most distinguishing feature is obvious, their spots. The Spotted Sandpiper in its breeding plumage sports an apron of dark spots from its chin down to its thighs. When the spots are there, there’s no mistaking them. Yet in winter their spots vanish, leaving behind a pure-white, unmarked underside and a uniformly grayish-brown back. Apart from physical appearance, they also have another behavior that is a dead giveaway for the species. The Spotted Sandpiper is one of our select few bird species with a habit of tail wagging and is the only one of our shorebirds that tail-wags. For the Spotted Sandpiper, it wags its tail downward, bobbing its whole body up and down as it walks and stalks.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have the black sheep of the bean family, Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis).
Redbud is one of our largest native legumes, meaning it’s a member of the bean family. It’s a small tree, growing twenty to thirty feet in height. It’s found throughout the eastern United States and in every corner of South Carolina. Every year at the eve of winter, Redbud graces us with its presence. Smoldering hot-pink flowers burst forth from its bark, setting the leafless tree aglow. Strangely, these flowers emerge not just from the twigs but from the larger stems and even the main trunk of the tree and they appear in dense clusters, sometimes packed so tight that flowers become buried beneath each other. Each individual flower is about a quarter-inch in size with that classic pea-flower shape. The leaves of Redbud emerge after it flowers and grow into palm-sized, heart shaped leaves. The new leaves often appear as lime-green or purple-red in color, especially at the branch tips, before maturing into a uniform verdant shade across the plant.
Redbud has several traits that make in unusual for a legume. One, it’s a full-fledged tree where nearly all of our native legumes are forbs, vines, or shrubs. Two, it is fairly shade tolerant and will even grow in the forest understory, whereas most legumes need full-sun. Three, it does not fix nitrogen. Legumes are renowned for their proclivity towards forming mutualistic relationships with soil bacteria in order to capture atmospheric nitrogen, allowing them to grow well on weathered soils where little else can. Yet, Redbud doesn’t have any special adaptations to do this. Despite its quirkiness, Redbud makes for an excellent native plant for ornamental use in yards and urban landscaping. It will grow well with little maintenance on a wide range of upland soils in a multitude of lighting conditions. When young, it can be pruned as a handsome shrub and, when mature, becomes a broad, arching shade tree. We also can’t forget the stunning profusion of flowers. Redbud is one of the first trees to bloom, usually starting in late February on Edisto Island. Bees and other early pollinators make good use of these flowers too, so they’re not just for show. Redbud is a great addition to most any native landscaping initiative and is commonly planted across South Carolina as a result.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have a band of burrowing bees, the Cellophane Bees (Colletes spp.).
In late winter miniature volcanos of fresh soil emerge from sandy barrens, trails, and driveways. Inch high hills of soft sand with pencil-thin holes puncturing their summits, dozens clustered together within arm’s reach. These are the telltale nest mounds of our Cellophane Bees. Here in the Lowcountry we have several species of Cellophane Bee. To me, the Unequal Cellophane Bee (C. inaequalis) appears to be our most common species around Edisto Island and the first to emerge here from late February well into March. Since all our Cellophane Bees are quite similar in appearance and ecology, I won’t get into interspecific nuances today. But generally, Cellophane Bees are similar in size and appearance to the Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) that we all know and love. Compared to Honey Bees, Cellophane Bees are a bit smaller, have more prominent antennae, and have a dark, abdomen wrapped in thin, contrasting bands of pale yellow.
As you would expect, Cellophane Bees are important pollinators. They travel from flower to flower collecting pollen and drinking nectar. They’re rather frenetic and hyper-active for bees, which makes them very efficient native pollinators. Some species are highly specialized to a certain family of flowering plants while others are more generalized. Unlike Honey Bees and Bumble Bees, Cellophane Bees are solitary ground-nesting bees. Each Bee digs its own burrow beneath the dirt to live in. The male’s burrow is nothing more than a bachelor’s pad for sleeping and escaping the elements. The female’s burrow is where she lays her eggs. Female Cellophane Bees will excavate a burrow in sandy soils several inches below the surface. She will often sit in the mouth of the burrow and guard it from rivals and predators. At the bottom of this burrow she’ll create a brood cell to cradle her eggs. The brood cell is lined in a thin film of a cellophane-like organic polymer produced by the female. This cling-wrapped cell is filled with a liquid slurry of nectar and pollen before an egg is laid within and the cell capped off. This “cellophane” bio-plastic allows the brood chamber at the bottom of the burrow to hold its shape in the sandy soil and is also waterproof, keeping the young from drying out and protecting the eggs and developing larvae from floods and rains. It’s also where Cellophane Bees get their common name. Each burrow contains one brood cell and the female will make several burrows each season. Although solitary, Cellophane Bees don’t mind neighbors and so you’ll often find dozens or hundreds of holes in a small patch of prime real estate.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we have an old world relic of homesteads past, Summer Snowflake (Leucojum aestivum).
On the eve of spring, a blaze of white over a bed of jade peppers the countryside. A vibrant life springs forth in the unlikeliest of places: the edge of a field, a roadside bottom, the corner of a lawn, or a backroad clearing. Summer Snowflake has awoken from its annual slumber. Squat bunches of narrow blue-green tongues arch out from the ground. Above them hangs a mast flying flags, six-petalled bells of white tipped in lime-green, signing across the Lowcountry the surrender of winter into spring.
Summer Snowflake is a perennial wildflower native to southern Europe. It’s a bulb plant long cultivated for its ornamental value and was spread to the eastern United States by European colonists. In Europe, its native habitat is streambeds, floodplains, and other wetland margins. In coastal South Carolina, it thrives in our warm climate and moist soils free from its native pests and predators in Europe. Summer Snowflake is what’s known as a naturalized exotic. A species that isn’t native to our region and thrives without care, but that doesn’t spread so viciously as to invade new habitats and cause harm. Summer Snowflake is far more prone to spread than Narcissus but doesn’t have the wanton wanderlust of Edisto’s African Gladiolus. It will spread into sunny wetlands but stays put on drier, sandier soils. An interesting consequence of naturalized, long-lived, stationary ornamental plants like Summer Snowflake, Daffodils, and Narcissus are that their presence often acts as an archaeological indicator. These plants were commonly planted around homes, graves, driveways, and other human structures to provide a breath of life and a symbol of civilization to generations past. Over time these structures crumble, are dismantled, and their remains swallowed by the earth. However decades or even centuries later, if they’ve not been buried beneath our maritime jungles, Summer Snowflake persists, staking out the ruins of yore and providing remembrance of peoples long since passed.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have the infamous butcher bird, the Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus).
The Loggerhead Shrike is found year-round throughout the southern United States, including all of South Carolina. Despite its broad range, it’s a scarce bird that’s often difficult to lay eyes on. Resident birds are very site specific. Migrant individuals show up suddenly in the winter months and often vanish as quickly as they appear. The loggerhead Shrike is a large songbird, about the size of a Cardinal or Mockingbird. Their body is stocky like a Cardinal but their plumage is very similar in color and pattern to that of a Northern Mockingbird, except with greater contrast and a different hue. The Loggerhead Shrike has an aluminum-blue back and cap, white belly and throat, and a black tail, wings, and mask. More distinctly, their head is unusually large for their size and their heavy bill is sharply hooked at the tip. Loggerhead Shrikes utter a myriad of strange and unique sounds but notably all are loud, harsh, and simplistic and most call are reminiscent of either Jays or Wrens. They inhabit open habitats, such as pastures, fields, golf courses, prairies, beach dunes, orchards, and savannas. They can most often be seen perch high atop a tree or shrub or along a fence or power-line.
What’s most interesting about Shrikes, to include our Loggerhead Shrike, is that they’re a carnivorous clade of songbirds. Their diets mainly consists of large insects, lizards, and frogs but also mice, small snakes, smaller songbirds, and other small vertebrates. They scan their surroundings from up high, looking for prey, before swooping in and immobilizing their quarry by severing it’s spine with their hooked bill. Even more fascinating is that Shrikes hunt constantly and store food for future use. They take their kills and impale them on branches, thorns, yucca needles, cactus spines, or barbed wire for later use. They return to eat their meals one piece at a time. This creates quite the macabre scenery, called a “larder”, and provides clear notice for any bird watchers who wander into a Loggerhead Shrike’s territory.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, it’s an economic juggernaut and pollen powerhouse, Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda).
Loblolly Pine is found throughout the southeastern United States and is ubiquitous in all but the highest reaches of South Carolina. It grows arrow-straight and can get quite tall and wide in ideal conditions. Its needles are about hand length, not too long but not particularly short. These needles skirt their narrow twigs for a foot or more down the branch, often covering the entire branch in saplings. These medium-sized needles and “leafy” branches are key to telling them apart from other pine species. Their cones are also moderately sized with sharp spines and, when dry, have a pale gray color to their exterior. These cones yield a one-winged seed, called a samara, which is blown by the wind into the surrounding area of the parent tree, or is plucked from the cone and eaten by birds and squirrels. Loblolly Pine is a generalist with rapid growth, a relatively short lifespan, ability to grow in poor soils, and tolerance for drought, flooding, and fire. Which is why it has come to be the number one timber species in all of the Southeast. It grows fast, straight, and will tolerate just about any soil long enough to make a harvestable crop of timber. This has made it the most common tree species in the modern South Carolina landscape. Nearly half the trees in South Carolina are Loblolly Pine. Yet, it was not always this way.
Historically, Loblolly Pine was found on floodplains, the margins of swamps, and other disturbed areas with moist soils. The other ecosystems of the Southeast were dominated by longer-lived or better adapted species of pine. Longleaf Pine dominated the fire-ravaged sandhills and flatwoods. Pond Pine dotted the Carolina Bays and depressional wetlands. Those same depressions were ringed with Slash Pine in the south, who also stood firm on the barrier islands. Shortleaf Pine blanketed the uplands. Virginia Pine and Pitch Pine stood upon the mountains. This left only the flood-prone fringes of rivers and swamps and other opportunistic habitats for Loblolly Pine. However, after European colonization, this ecological balance was upset. Old-growth stands of Longleaf and Slash Pine were felled and replaced with pastures and fields. Fire was suppressed on the landscape, hampering the regeneration of most Pine species, but not Loblolly. Loblolly Pine quickly colonized these disturbed areas and established a foothold in abandoned fields and windrows. When the demand for timber eventually outpaced the supply from old-growth forests, silviculture became widely profitable and the Loblolly Pine was the obvious choice for a staple cash crop in the Southeast. It has since been selectively bred to improve its form and growth rate across a wide range of soils, creating the modern Loblolly Pine that saturates the South Carolina landscape. We also have Loblolly Pine to thank for the smothering yellow fog we in the Lowcountry experience every February, as the male pollen cones of millions of Loblolly Pines simultaneously open, powder-coating our cars and waterways in pastel-yellow for weeks.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s a pair of big and boisterous black birds, our Crows of genus Corvus.
Here in the Lowcountry we have two species of Crow, the American Crow (C. brachyrynchos) and the Fish Crow (C. ossifragus). In the upper reaches of South Carolina the Common Raven (C. corax) is sometimes seen but never here in the Lowcountry. The American Crow and the Fish Crow are almost indistinguishable in appearance, both with plumage as black as coal across their entire body, a stout frame, and a sturdy, pointed bill. These two Crows constitute our largest species of Songbird in the Lowcountry and both are highly intelligent, generalists, move in groups, and have loud, distinct calls.
The American Crow is the bigger of the two, growing a touch larger than the Fish Crow. The American Crow is found throughout much of the lower forty-eight states and Canada, to include all of South Carolina. Their call is that stereotypical, repeated bark-like “Caw” we all know of Crows. However, they make a wide array of other, often strange, calls for communication with each other. American Crows are social and form tight knit family groups that move together throughout the landscape. They prefer open wooded habitats, like savannas and suburban neighborhoods, as a home base but will can be found almost anywhere and will venture into almost any habitat, to include cities, beaches, farm fields, swamps, and clear-cuts. They are extremely accomplished generalists who eat just about everything and, due to their very high intelligence, can capitalize food resources few other birds can access.
The Fish Crow is ever so slightly smaller than the American Crow and is found exclusively in the Southeast and Atlantic coastal plain of the United States. Their population numbers fluctuate throughout the year, being most abundant on Edisto Island in winter, but can be found year-round. Their calls are more simplistic but a little less consistent than the American Crow. Their calls are delivered with a distinct, nasally tone, most often as a “kah” or two-note “kah-ha”. The Fish Crow is a predominantly wetland species, being found extensively along beaches, tidal creeks, impoundments, freshwater marshes, and flooded duck fields. If you see a Crow walking on an oyster bed or foraging in a marsh, it’s almost always a Fish Crow. They’re also an expert generalist and will eat just about anything. A unique trait to Fish Crows is that they don’t form close knit family units like American Crows. In summer they pair off and raise their young, but in winter they coalesce into flocks of hundreds or thousands of birds. At dusk in winter, one can watch great rivers of Fish Crows flying west over the Island to roost overnight in the heart of the ACE Basin. They then wake in the morning, disperse, and feed across the landscape before returning again to their common roost. In early February their numbers swell in the ACE basin before the birds fly south en masse to greener spring pastures.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we have a compact, clustering cousin of Carolina’s iconic palm, the Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens).
Saw Palmetto is a small species of Palm found on the coast of the Southeastern United States, from the Mississippi River, to the South Carolina Lowcountry, and down throughout Florida. Edisto Island is on the extreme edge of its natural range, with at least a handful of healthy populations existing along the west edge of our Island. Saw Palmetto is long-lived and highly tolerant of salt, drought, and poor soils, just like Cabbage Palmetto. However Saw Palmetto does not tolerate freezing temperature well and so on Edisto Island is limited to hammock islands and other thermally insulated maritime fringe habitats. The overall appearance of Saw Palmetto is very much Palmetto-like. It has fronds with a circular blade radiating out from one central point, stringy bark, and a spherical crown. However, its fronds are much smaller than even Dwarf Palmetto and their stems are lined with sharp, hooked teeth. This makes any attempt to walk through a thicket of Saw Palmetto a dicey, and often slice-y, maneuver. Furthermore unlike our other two native Palmettos, Saw Palmetto has multiple stems, spreads clonally, and will regenerate from the roots if it’s leading bud is destroyed. This is an adaptation to the historically prevalent wildfires in Florida and the coastal Southeast. Research indicates that some clonal colonies in Florida may be several thousand years old. When not regularly set alight, Saw Palmetto grows slowly into a large bush that’s as tall as it is wide, usually about six to eight feet tall in our area. Like our other Palmettos, it blooms in spring with huge clusters of small, creamy-white flowers that are scoured for pollen and nectar by bees and other pollinators. The pollinated flowers mature into small black drupes that are eaten and dispersed by birds. You may have heard of Saw Palmetto Extract, which comes from the fruit of Saw Palmetto. (As of this writing, there is no conclusive evidence that this extract can treat any medical conditions in humans.)
