On a hot, humid Saturday afternoon, my friend Howard and I, went out to understand more about the complex coastal midden plant community and try to see if we could observe a rare plant. We had some ideas where we were trying to go, but ended up wandering around in a coastal swamp until we finally started to notice some contrasting flora colors. We headed off in the directions of what we hoped were coastal middens.
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| Notice the darker vegetation in the back. These are palmettos growing on higher elevated areas and were our first signs that there may be shell middens close by. |
Middens are are places that past humans have used as areas to discard unwanted waste. We were searching for shell middens. Shell middens were created by piling leftover mollusk shells after edible parts were used. The mollusk, having a high calcium content, end up making the midden very alkaline, which in turn, has consequences on the vegetation community that takes over across time.
The higher elevated areas had an understory full of palmettos and other species. Cornus spp, Aesculus pavia, Juniperus virginiana, and Carya spp are all types of plants that are commonly seen on shell middens. These plants are able to live on these areas due to the higher elevation and the effect the shells had on the soil chemistry.
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| Shells |
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| Aesculus pavia |
We finally did find the rare plant we were looking for. The large tree you see in the picture below is soapberry, or Sapindus marginatus. It was a very large tree and there were numerous saplings growing around it. Pictures were taken and there was much excitement.
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