This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s a tri-lobed twining vine with a twisted seed, Carolina Snailseed (Nephroia carolina).
Carolina Snailseed is a perennial vine found throughout the South and all of South Carolina. It can tolerate a wide range of growing conditions, from the heavy shade of the forest floor to full sun on a fence row, and from the fertile floodplains to the barren sand ridges. It’s a very versatile vine. It grows by twining its narrow, wiry stem around vegetation and can reach about ten feet in height. Its leaves are a rich emerald-green, tri-lobed in shape, and leathery in texture, often with prominently sunken veins. Carolina Snailseed blooms in late spring throughout summer. Its flowers are tiny, cream-white in color, and bloom in small clusters along the stem below each upper leaf. These flowers, once pollinated, will mature in fall into brilliant, scarlet-red berries about a quarter-inch in size. Within each colorful berry is a single seeded secret surprise.
The seeds of Carolina Snailseed are large and helically twisted. They look just like a tiny snail shell, but with a rough exterior. Carolina Snailseed also goes by two other common names: Carolina Coralbead and Carolina Moonseed. Both of which are equally fitting, this plant having both coral-colored bead-like berries and also being a relative and visually similar to Common Moonseed (Menispermum canadense) which is found throughout the Northern United States and mid-South. But neither of these names are quite as iconic as “snailseed” in my opinion. Despite this plant having a snail-seed, it doesn’t spread at a snail’s pace. Carolina Snailseed is dispersed by birds, which eat the enticing red berries and then deposit the snail-shaped seed along a tree line, thicket, or fence some ways away. Here on the Sea Islands, Carolina Snailseed is often evergreen, thanks to our subtropical climate. These always verdant leaves paired with brilliant red berries make it a wonderful yard plant to train up a trellis or fence to retain some life into winter in your yard or garden, while feeding the birds to boot!
