St. Pat’s Day Paddle
Wambaw Creek
Francis Marion National Forest,
March 17, 2024,
1:00 PM, 60° F,
Overcast, light rain
Wambaw Creek is a black water tidal creek that winds through the Wambaw Creek Wilderness Area of the Francis Marion National Forest. We put in at the Elmwood boat landing and were surrounded by spring green. The Paddle SC website states that, “The illusive Carolina panther and black bear have also been sighted along the trail.” Spoiler alert for this blog, we did see some turkeys flying out from the trees and heard something splashing back in the swamp, but there were no panther sightings today.
Green Hawthorn Crataegus viridis, along the Wambaw creek in the Francis Marion National Forest.
The banks were lined with blooming Green Hawthorn. It is a very pretty and cheerful flower, but how to describe the smell? Old fish and garlic? Hawthorn flowers have triethylamine in their scent, which is one of the first chemicals released by decaying bodies, to attract pollinating carrion insects. The scent had also been compared to bad breath, gangrene, and sex. Be warned about getting too close to these trees- the thirteenth century Scottish mystic and poet Thomas the Rhyme apparently once met the Fairy Queen by a hawthorn bush from which a cuckoo was calling. She led him into the Fairy Underworld for what seemed a brief sojourn, but upon re-emerging into the world of mortals he found he had been gone for seven years.
And then there are the oak catkins, filling the air with golden pollen. In addition to wind pollination, oak trees are also pollinated by insects such as bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, and wasps. Oak flowers are also consumed by birds and mammals like mice, deer, and grey squirrels in early spring, as they’re one of the earliest available abundant food sources.
Also decorating the tree limbs were maple samaras, also known as helicopters, whirlers, twisters or whirligigs. Other trees such as ash and elm produce samaras too, but their seeds are only one wing. Maple trees are the only trees that drop true helicopter seeds.
Possibly Alder Leaf Beetle, Chrysomela interrupta.
My best guess is that this is an Alder Leaf Beetle, Chrysomela interrupta, but no one has confirmed this ID for me on iNaturalist.
Old Man’s Beard, Usnea lichen.
Beard lichens are fruticose lichens that resemble leafless mini-shrubs or tassels anchored on bark or twig. In poor growing conditions, such as areas high in pollution, they may grow no larger than a few millimeters, but if the air is unpolluted, they can grow to 10–20 cm long, so they can be an indicator of air quality. They are also commonly called ‘old man’s beard’ and somewhat resemble the plant Spanish moss. The northern parula uses Usnea lichens in the construction of its nest in some parts of its range.
After getting off the water, we stopped along the road to look of early spring wildflowers.
We spotted this small swamp from the road, and so it was necessary to stop and get out the boots and dip net to explore it.
I am always pleased to come across bladderworts, although I supposed if I was an aquatic worm or water flea I would feel differently. Bladderworts are plants that lack roots and usually have a horizontal floating stem with small carnivorous bladders. The bladders are hollow underwater traps with a flexible door that is kept closed while a physiological process moves water from the interior to the exterior of the bladder. This generates a state of low pressure within the trap. If a small animal triggers bristles that project from the surface of the door, the trap suddenly opens, and a quick inflow of water sucks the prey inside. There the prey is digested in about 15 to 30 minutes. and the trap reset.
And the pot of gold? These were scooped up in the dip net, and at first we thought they were some sort of amphibian egg. But they were not uniform in size, didn’t have any type of protective layer, were not in clusters, and didn't appear to have any tadpole developing inside. Could it be H.G. Blob from Futurama?
A little internet research turned up Ophrydium, a ciliate protist that lives in colonies in jelly spheres made of a substance they secrete. Living with the Ophrydium are microscopic Chlorella algae which give the blob its green color. The blobs can also contain diatoms, cyanobacteria and spirochetes, as well as rotifers, nematodes, and occasional copepods. So basically an entire little city-in-a-blob.
P.S. I do wish this website editor would stop autocorrecting Wambaw to wombat.
