Following Nature in South Carolina

Evergreen Most Unlikely The Southern Magnolia is one of the most iconic trees of the American South.        Glen Campbell's 1977 song Southern Nights is a love letter to the American South, describing the beauty of its nature in the evening. If you haven't heard it before, you should give it a listen! The album cover centrally features a framed Magnolia flower, with wide white petals and glossy, vibrant, green leaves. These trees and flowers are absolutely baked into the Southern landscape, and that includes South Carolina!        The Southern Magnolia, or Magnolia grandiflora ,  is native to the Southeast region of the U.S., but has cousins all across the world. It reaches between 60-80 feet tall, on average, and spreads about half as wide as it grows. As the title suggests, the Magnolia is an evergreen. As someone who has spent most of their life in the upstate of South Carolina, near the bottom of the Blue Ridge, I can say it was always od...

 The Lettered Olive It's hard to see, but it's there.        The Lettered Olive, or Oliva sayana ,  is a predatory snail (the picture you see on the left is its shell, the picture you see on the right is the mollusk component with  the shell), and South Carolina's state shell! The Lettered Olive looks like an ancient creature, especially considering that it gets its name from markings that bear similarities to Egyptian hieroglyphics — but it wasn't discovered until 1834 by Dr. Edmund Ravenel, a native Charlestonian. While they are common in SC, they are not just found along one state's coast. Rather, they are native to the entire West Atlantic coast.        The Lettered Olive shell is special to many collectors because of its high luster (which comes from the snail's shell-building tissue), and is a fun find or those who engage in shelling! I grew up with shell display cases around the house (see picture below), because my mother w...

 A Pretty Scary-Looking Spider Not a fan, personally.        All things considered, the Carolina Wolf Spider is more bark than bite. That doesn't mean that I like them. They grow up to 3-4 inches, after all. As the SC State Park Service points out, "ALL spiders carry some venom". Sure, it doesn't promise the painful bite of, say, a Black Widow, but it can still be harmful, and even cause dangerous allergic reactions in some folks.        The Carolina Wolf Spider gets its name from the fact that, instead of trapping its prey in webs, it hunts it down. When the females are pregnant, they must raise their abdomen to protect their silken egg sacks from dragging on the ground, but they still hunt effectively ( SC State Park Service ).        Generally speaking, the rule is to not disturb the spider: Unless you seek it out in the middle of the woods and handle it, it's not going to seek you out in the middle of the woods and bi...

 The Green Anole Let's face it: He's everywhere.        According to the USNPS Species Profile , Green Anoles are the only kind of anole native to the U.S. We spend a lot of time discussing non-native species in South Carolina, so the Green Anole is a little bit of a change. The Green Anole can grow up to eight inches long and even change color between shades of green and brown! Males possess a red throat pouch called a dulap that is used to attract females (more on that in the video below), but both males and females possess "oversized toes for better traction" ( USNPS Species Profile ), as the Green Anole spends lots and lots of time climbing trees, fences, and porch railings. SCETV What's Wild: Green Anole Feature

The Great Grape-Colored Vine You know it's Spring in SC when you see Wisteria in bloom! Chinese and Japanese Wisteria Distribution Map    State of Indiana Cooperative Invasives Management        While SC does see both American and Kentucky Wisteria bloom, most of the visible Wisteria is of the Chinese or Japanese variety. Like the previously discussed invasive vine, Kudzu, the Wisteria vine came from Asia in the early 1800s, touted for its ornamental purposes. Notice how both Kudzu and Wisteria have spread into many of the same areas in the United States, as shown on the map. And much like Kudzu, its rapid growth was unpredicted and therefore unmanaged. The result? Wisteria vines have been known to create canopies over forests (shading plants meant to grow in the sun), choke and break tree limbs, and even completely overtake smaller trees . Native vs. Non-Native Aren't they all just purple flowers?        American Wisteria (pictured lef...

 A Rare Sight "That's the biggest bird I've ever seen."        If you grew up in the Outer-Coastal Region of South Carolina, or at its Western border along the Savannah River, occasionally, you would spot this mighty bird and get pretty excited — at least, I did. The Sandhill Crane seemed pretty cool as a kid, averaging around 47.2 inches with a wingspan nearly twice that, and a great streak of red above its beak ( Cornell Lab Sandhill Crane Identification Page ). It always moved slowly through marshy areas along the previously mentioned South Carolina waterways, carefully stalking small amphibians and insects or feeding on plants that grow above the waterline.         While the Sandhill Cranes along the Western border are typically there as a result of their migratory pattern (Cornell Lab map shown below), Sandhill Cranes in the Lowcountry are non-migratory, but not a particularly common species to come across. Famous South Caroli...