This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s another one of our tree-climbing vines and one with standout fall foliage, Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).
Virginia Creeper is a member of the Grape family and a common vine throughout South Carolina. It will grow in most any soil and tolerates both full sun and heavy shade. This vine is most easily identified by its leaves, which are separated into five pointed leaflets branching out from a central point. The stem of Virginia creeper is relatively thin with a coarse bark of grayish-brown and occasionally has thick rootlets emerging from it. Virginia Creeper is often confused with Poison-Ivy, especially in winter, but Creeper’s un-hairy stem will let you tell the two apart. Virginia Creeper blooms in late April with clusters of delicate, inconspicuous green flowers that mature into small, deep blue berries. These flowers are well-visited by pollinators and the berries are enjoyed by birds, who then carry its seeds to distant trees and shrubs.
Virginia Creeper can grow either as a groundcover, when there’s nothing around to climb, or more commonly as a vine. One of the more impressive characteristics of Virginia Creeper is its ability to climb. Unlike other vines that climb with wrapping tendrils or burrowing rootlets, Virginia Creeper uses adhesive pads at the tips of its tendrils in addition to their grappling twist. This lets the plant get a solid grip on practically anything, regardless of its texture. Due to this trait, Virginia Creeper is especially good at growing along the sprawling limbs of Live Oaks, the arrow straight trunks of Pines, and also on houses, metal buildings, vehicles, and other slick-sided human structures. Here in the Lowcountry, where fall starts in December and winter is sometimes a suggestion, Virginia Creeper is one of the first plants to change color, and it does so with gusto! In early autumn the leaves of Virginia Creeper turn a pure and vibrant crimson-red. Here on the evergreen Live Oak laden Sea Islands, you can stand in a field or on the edge of the marsh in fall and easily pick out every tree strung with a Virginia Creeper vine as far as the eye can see in any direction!
This week we have a short tale about a butterfly with long tails, the Long-tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus).
The Long-tailed Skipper is a medium-sized butterfly, but large for a Skipper, which is the family of small-winged, fast-flying butterflies to which it belongs. This butterfly holds its triangular wings outward at a forty-five degree angle from its body. Those wings are colored a neutral grayish-brown below with ebony bands across the hindwing and ivory spots near the tip of the forewing. This hindwing trails downward into a long tail hanging out beyond the end of its abdomen, which became this species’ namesake. On the upper side an unexpected blast of brass and iridescent turquoise saturates the body and inner wings of the Long-tailed Skipper. Towards the edges of the wings a warmly-toned brown emerges and those translucent ivory spots from below show through. The Long-tailed Skipper sports the most easily seen blue of all our native butterflies, as most hide their brilliant blues behind closed wings.
The Long-tailed Skipper is commonly found anywhere there is nectar but is particularly fond of brushy woodland edges, pine savannas, and vegetable gardens. The reason being is that its caterpillars host on many species of legumes, most commonly vining species. Larval host plants include wild plants like the aptly named Butterfly Pea (Clitoria mariana), our American Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens), and several species of Beggar’s-Ticks (Desmodium spp.) as well as many agricultural crops such as the common Garden Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). Because of their affinity for all things bean, they’ve also earned the moniker of Bean Leafroller. This name comes from the defensive strategy employed by their caterpillars, in which they chew out the ends of a section of leaf and then fold it over on top of themselves to hide from predators. As they get larger, they eventually fold over entire leaves like a taco and glue the edges together with silk. Their caterpillar is a mottled green with a prominent yellow stripe down each flank and a black head with red cheeks. In more tropical climates, they can become a significant agricultural pest.
The Long-tailed Skipper is a very common species here on Edisto Island from late summer until the end of the year but their abundance increases dramatically the later in the year it gets. This is because the Long-tailed skipper is one of our many tropical migrant butterflies. As their populations swell in Florida, they gradually, and then rapidly, push north up the coast in search of new habitat, eventually saturating the state.
Our 2022 Oyster Roast was a rousing success! Thank you to everyone who made it out to support EIOLT, to Calvert Huffines and all our amazing sponsors who helped make it a reality, to Jamie Westendorff and Ella & Ollies for providing the delicious food and oysters, and of course a big thank you to Mark & Tucker Crawford for hosting us at Sand Creek Farm once again!
Check out the below photo gallery from the Oyster Roast:
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have a sweet treat from the fall forest, American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana).
American Persimmon is found throughout the southeastern United States. It’s usually a small to medium-sized tree which grows on a wide array of soil types. On Edisto Island, it’s commonly found on field rows, road sides, ditch edges, and coming up in fallow fields. In drier habitats and those with poor soils, it typically grows into a short and sometimes shrubby tree. On fertile soils with ample water, it can grow into a large canopy tree. American Persimmon is a tree that’s easy to identify. Its fairly large, simple, alternate, oval-shaped leaves resemble few other species here in the coastal plain. Persimmons also commonly get a leaf-spot disease here on the coast, which manifests as small black dots all over the tree’s leaves, and this symptom is so ubiquitous that it makes American Persimmon very easy to pick out at a glance. On a quick aside, Persimmon is also one of the host plants for the Luna Moth, whose caterpillar feeds on its leaves. In the winter Persimmon is still an easy one to pick out as it has unique bark, which is dark, almost black, gray-brown and deeply furrowed with a blocky appearance, and distinctive twigs, which are a warm brown, punctuated with little corky bumps, and bear small, black buds.
However, American Persimmon is easiest to identify in fall by its fruits. The fruit of our native Persimmon is a large berry, at about an inch across, and colored a rich blend of soft orange and red, darkening and reddening as it ripens, with a velvety sheen of silver on the skin. Inside this fruit are a handful of persimmon seeds, which are large, flat, and orange-brown in color. American Persimmons are incredibly productive fruit trees. In good years, a small wild Persimmon can be so laden with fruit as to break branches. Persimmon fruits are adored by an almost endless list of wildlife, including deer, foxes, mockingbirds, raccoons, box turtles, orioles, squirrels, cedar waxwings, coyotes, opossums, turkey, black bears, and the list goes on. American Persimmon is also very edible for people! When fully ripe, the fruit has a heavy honey-sweet flavor enrichened with a complex medley of intermingled fruity notes. A ripe persimmon is a uniform rose-red in color and mushy to the touch. However, when NOT fully ripe, the fruit is unbearably astringent due to its high tannin content, like red wine cranked up to eleven, which leaves your mouth feeling like it’s full of sawdust. That extreme astringency is harmless but practically intolerable. Finding a perfectly ripe Persimmon in the wild can be a challenge, given every critter in the woods is looking for one too. To get around this competition with wildlife, one can harvest not-quite-ripe persimmons and ripen them through a process called bletting. This was historically done by exposing the fruits to light frost for a few days. Nowadays and down here where we can’t rely on frost, this is most easily accomplished by placing the persimmons in a paper bag with a banana for a few days until they begin ripening and then, once close to ripe, storing them in the fridge (sans banana) for a week or so to blet them. One additional fact is that American Persimmon is a dioecious plant, meaning that there are both male and female trees. Male trees will never produce fruit and you can’t tell which kind of tree you have until they mature and flower. Female trees won’t produce fruit either unless there are male trees nearby to pollinate them. So if you’re interested in growing your own American Persimmon trees, you’ll need to plant a handful!
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday is a ruddy reptile with a terrible reputation, the Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix).
The Copperhead is our most common Viper on the Island and on the smaller end, averaging two feet in length. Their scales are a tan or copper-orange with dark “X”s down their back. They live in forests where they blend into the leaf litter or nestle under logs to ambush rodents, toads, and insects. Vipers are interesting for reptiles in that they give live birth. Rather than laying eggs, the eggs incubate inside their mother and she gives birth to wide-eyed and scaly-tailed baby snakes.
Copperheads are known for getting into trouble with us humans. Their favorite hidey-holes are underneath something next to a structure and we like to leave somethings lying all around our structures. This is compounded by an instinctual danger reflex unique to Copperheads. When surprised they freeze and let their camouflage hide them, remaining motionless until touched. When touched they assume their cover is blown and go straight to fangs. This preference for getting into our stuff and not letting us know they’re there is the reason why Copperheads account for the vast majority of venomous snake bites in South Carolina. Luckily, Copperheads often dry-bite, injecting no venom, and their venom is the weakest of our Vipers. Healthy adult humans can typically survive their bite without antivenin. However, I wouldn’t roll that dice. One should always seek immediate medical attention if bitten by a venomous snake.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s an aureate autumn field flower, Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima).
Tall Goldenrod is a large, late blooming wildflower found throughout the eastern United States. It’s commonly found here in the Lowcountry in fallow fields, pasture edges, clear cuts, and other sunny open areas. Tall goldenrod grows four to five feet in height. It has straight, stiff stems which are generally a muted-burgundy in color and covered in a fine peach-fuzz. Leaves spiral up the entire length of the stem and are alternately arranged, simple, lance-shaped, and possess a lightly toothed margin and debossed veins. Tall Goldenrod is a colony forming plant and spreads aggressively underground through rhizomes. Under the right conditions, it can fill up an entire field. Tall Goldenrod blooms in fall, usually peaking the first few weeks of October. Their radiant golden-yellow flowers emerge in a pointed panicle at the top of the stem. Each flower is itself a compound flower composed of many smaller flowers. The flowers of Tall Goldenrod are frequented by bees, wasps, flies, and other pollinators.
Tall Goldenrod gets a bad rap for causing fall allergies but this is actually a case of misattribution, as Goldenrod pollen is not wind dispersed. What actually causes fall allergies are species like Common Ragweed and various warm-season grasses, which have wind dispersed pollen but no obvious flowers. Goldenrods have bright showy flowers that attract pollinating insects, and also catch our attention. The point of these showy flowers is to get insects to pick up the heavy, sticky pollen produced by Goldenrod and carry it to other Goldenrod flowers. If Goldenrod released its pollen into the air, it would have no need for these highly visible, nectar producing flowers. Goldenrod blooms at the same time as these other innocuously flowering plants and grows in the same habitats. So when we start sneezing, we notice the Goldenrod covering the landscape and lay the blame at its feet, not noticing the Bluestem and Ragweed mixed in with it.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have a boisterous and brilliantly blue bird, the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata).
The Blue Jay is found year-round across the eastern and central United States. They’re a member of the corvids, the same family as crows. They share many of the characteristic with other corvids, including a heavy pointed bill, large body size, high intelligence, a wide range of vocalizations, and a social nature. Blue Jays are one of our most easily recognized birds. Their underside is plated in ice-whites and steel-gray. Their head pointed with a triangular crest. Their face encircled and divided by a bridle of black. Their nape is awash with a stormy-sky-blue leading down to a tail and wings of brilliant blue, divided by black bands and accented with white, like a stained glass panel. Blue Jays are also easily recognized by their calls, which are as loud as they are varied. The most common is a sharp dry cry but they also rattle, cackle, shriek, yip like a small dog, and click their bills. Often these are all issued in a slurry by several birds all at once. They will even mimic the calls of large birds of prey. Of our local raptors, they’re especially fond of, and pretty good at, mimicking the call of the Red-shouldered Hawk but will also attempt to copy the Bald Eagle and Red-tailed Hawk on occasion.
Blue Jays are social birds and live in tight-knit family groups. They typically inhabit oak forests but also take well to suburbia. They’re arboreal and spend most of their time in the trees but regularly drop to the ground to forage. The Blue Jay’s diet is predominantly acorns, nuts, fruits, seeds, and grains but also includes a fair bit of invertebrates and the occasional small vertebrate, such as a frog or lizard. They will visit feeders but generally need to be bribed with large nuts, dried fruits, and suet to get them to show with consistency.
One of the most interesting facts about Blue Jays are that they’re a critical species in forest ecology. Much like squirrels, Blue Jays cache away acorns and nuts for later use, generally wedging them in crevices or jamming them directly into the soil. Also like squirrels, they sometimes forget where they left those nuts. Those forgotten seeds then get a head start on germination. However, unlike squirrels, Blue Jays can fly. Thus they can effortlessly move acorns great distances uphill, over rivers, or across open fields. There is also evidence that Blue Jays will deliberately cache seeds in un-forested areas and forest clearings. This provides an invaluable ecosystem service in the form of reforestation, allowing slow growing trees with heavy seeds the opportunity to reclaim land. This skill of Blue Jays and other Jay species is being put to good use by ecologists to help reforest certain damaged ecosystems. By providing the Jays with a buffet of acorns from selected species, ecologists can efficiently seed and reforest large areas of land, with no disturbance to the area and minimal costs for labor.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have a twiney vine found in fallow fields and brushy thickets, Hairy Clustervine (Jacquemontia tamnifolia).
Hairy Clustervine is found throughout the coastal plain of the Southeastern United States. It’s a low growing, herbaceous, and annual species from the Morning-Glory family, Convolvulaceae. It has heart shaped-leaves and almost the entire plant is covered in a coat of fine hair. The most notable feature of Hairy Clustervine is a namesake hairy cluster it produces composed of the flower buds and seed pods. This cluster is about an inch to inch-and-a-half wide and it’s bursting with thin, twisted bracts and downy hairs. From the cluster’s margins spring forth pastel-indigo flowers, each less than a half-inch across, and usually two or three at a time. As the seasons wear on, the flowers stop but these clusters brown and remain over winter as a reminder of the plant’s presence. Hairy Clustervine is most easily spotted growing in fallow fields over the top of grass and forbs but it is also a common site in roadsides, ditch edges, and sunny wood-lines.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we’ve dredged up a peculiar fish from our estuarine waterways, the Oyster Toadfish (Opsanus tau).
The Oyster Toadfish is found throughout the saline coastal of coastal South Carolina. It’s most commonly seen in and around oyster reefs where it nestles between the oysters and the pluff mud, lying in ambush. They’re omnivorous but mainly eat crustaceans, mollusks, and small fish. The Oyster Toadfish is a strange and unique looking fish. It reaches about a foot in length and its relatively flat body is covered in a mottled pattern of browns and pale-yellow. Their pectoral fins are heavy and muscular and their dorsal fin extends all the way down towards the end of their tail, perfect for crawling around the mud and low-speed swimming. They have a broad, flat head covered in fleshy barbels and a wide mouth full of small dome-shaped teeth. When pulled out of the water, Oyster Toadfish can be a handful. These fish grunt, bite, and wield a mildly venomous dorsal spine. Their sting is painful like a wasp but otherwise harmless. The Oyster Toadfish is one of the many species who depend on the critical inshore reef habitat created by the Eastern Oyster and a key part of keeping those habitats healthy.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have yet another noticeable wetland wildflower, Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana).
Obedient Plant is found sporadically within the South Carolina Lowcountry. It’s not a particularly common native wildflower here but it is a widespread staple of home gardens and easy to source at native plant nurseries. It prefers wet meadows, freshwater marsh margins, and sunny floodplains, all not too common habitats here in South Carolina. Obedient Plant grows two to three feet in height. It spreads laterally beneath the ground and forms loose clumping colonies. It has an upright posture with stems growing straight up, branches held aloft, and leaves held straight out. The leaves are oppositely arranged and easily identified by their simple, elliptical shape and saw-toothed margins. Obedient Plant is in the mint family, Lamiaceae, and proudly demonstrates its family’s trademark square stems. Yet its flowers are still the trademark identifier. Flowers bloom at the uppermost tips of the stems and branches. Individual flowers are arranged together into a spike, with each flower emerging directly from the stem, and together the flower buds form a tall and tight-knit spire above the main plant. Individual flowers bloom from the base of the spike upward. There are often a dozen or more open at once, all packed closely together. Each flower is a blend of magenta and white, giving the flower a pale pink color from a distance. The petals of each flower are fused together into a bilaterally symmetrical corolla, shaped a bit like a pitcher. The peak bloom time of Obedient Plant is mid-September and it is a wonderful nectar plant for pollinators, particularly our native bees. It’s also a good addition to any backyard garden and grows well in garden beds with rich, moist soils.
