Return to Forty Acre Rock Heritage Preserve, Lancaster County, South Carolina — 2013-04-13

After leaving a satisfying visit to a rare Trillium location in the center of the state, Alan Cressler, and I drove a little more than an hour north to visit Forty Acre Rock Heritage Preserve in Lancaster County. This was my second time to visit the site (I had visited a week before), but it was Alan’s first visit. Click here to read the blog entry for that prior visit.

On this trip, I wanted to spend more time studying the plants around the edges of the large, granite outcrop. So, after Alan photographed the vernal pools on top of the outcrop, we connected to the trail that leads west toward a creek that skirts the edge.

But before joining the path, Alan made an exciting discovery:

Here is a closer shot of the snake. Notice that wonderful, pink tongue:

This is Heterodon platyrhinos or Eastern Hog Nose Snake in its black phase. Most of the ones that I’ve seen are dark brown, but this dark one was quite beautiful. Several of our snake species do have a darker phase, and this one is no exception. Alan had heard it rustling in the leaves at the edge of the outcrop, and he wanted to demonstrate an unusual behavior that this snake exhibits when threatened; namely, it plays dead!

How cool is THAT? Doesn’t it really look like road kill with its mouth open and its tongue hanging out at an odd angle! It also ejected foul-smelling feces as another defense mechanism just before rolling over into its “dead” posture. As Alan was coaxing the snake into this behavior, a couple of local boys walked up and asked what we were doing. I think they were the type that would just as soon kill any snake they saw rather than take the time to study it to learn more about its nature. They were quite wide-eyed as Alan explained that he was trying to coax the snake into playing dead. Quite a sight… Soon, he returned the snake to a safe hiding place in the woods, and we made our way down from the top of the outcrop toward the stream that runs along the edge.

One of the first features we saw was a natural cave in the side of the granite formation. Alan is not only a botanist but a caver, as well. There were a bunch of kids playing around it, so we decided to proceed down the trail and come back later to check it out. Along the way, we saw a few wildflowers that are typical of such an environment: Amsonia tabernaemontana, known as Eastern bluestar (left) and Stellaria pubera known as Star chickweed (right).

Farther down the trail, I spotted a large group of Arisaema triphyllum or Jack-in-the-pulpit, so named because of the “Jack” (spadix/spathe) standing at the “pulpit”:

This is the light green form, with the flower being the same bright green color as the leaves.

Nearby, we found a group of Jack-in-the-pulpit that were a bit more striking in their color patterns. Note the dark purple, almost black, spathe underside — especially on the newly emerging flower on the right:

There was a lot more to explore, but it was getting late, and Alan had a 5-hour ride before he would be back home in Atlanta, Georgia. And he wanted to check out that cave that we had passed earlier.

On the way back, I noticed a large population of one of the star attractions of this site — Sedum pusillum or Puck’s orpine:

This plant is strikingly similar to the bright red Diamorpha smallii or Elf orpine that grows on top of the granite outcrop:

However, Puck’s orpine prefers to grow in the shade of the local Juniperus virginiana or Eastern Red-cedar, whereas, Elf orpine prefers to grow in the vernal pools in direct sunlight.

When we arrived back at the cave, Alan climbed up the slope and went in. A few minutes later, he came back out and reported that it was full of broken glass and the walls were completely covered with graffiti — typical for features like this when they are at an unsupervised site. This place is so far away from civilization, that it would be impossible to monitor it on a regular basis. It’s too bad that the kids in the area have little respect for such a treasure of a heritage preserve.

We climbed back up the trail to the top of the outcrop. Luckily, it had been a warm, sunny day, and I had hoped that the federally endangered Gratiola amphiantha or Pool sprite would be in bloom. On my previous visit a week earlier, the weather provided cold wind and a cloudy day, so the flowers of the Pool sprite were not open. But this was another day, and the fates looked down on us favorably:

These flowers are exceedingly tiny — about 2 mm wide when fully open. That means you could line up more than a dozen, side-by-side, and barely fill one inch! I was quite pleased to be able to find these in full bloom. It is difficult to see, but the leaves are floating in about 2 inches (~5 cm) of water in one of the rounded depressions on the outcrop. The yellow dust coating the leaves and water are pollen grains. It is spring, after all, and the trees are having sex!

In addition, there were a couple of other flowering plants in full bloom. One of these is Minuartia uniflora or Piedmont Sandwort. There is supposed to be only one variety here at this site, but I’m not convinced of that. There are the smaller ones (left) and the much larger ones (right). They appear to be quite similar except for their size. I have found both “varieties” growing side-by-side, so the idea that their habitat might make the difference is not valid, in my opinion. The flowers of the image on the left are about 5 mm wide, whereas the flowers in the image on the right are about 8-10 mm wide, and the plant itself is much taller:

The other flowering plant is Nothoscordum bivalve or Crowpoison. It was growing in large clumps along the edge of the outcrop. Note in the left image, the tiny Piedmont Sandwort growing at the base of the taller Crowpoison plants:

All things considered, it was a very good day for botanizing in South Carolina. Great company and a great display of flora. I am so thankful for South Carolina’s vision in attempting to preserve our natural heritage by creating state Heritage Preserves such as this one, which are scattered all across the state.

— Jim