Two months back, we visited the south North Carolina coast and visited a state park. It was a chance to see a different habitat which was pre-dominated by Long-leaf Pine trees (Pinus palustris), sandy soils, bogs, and coastal beach areas. Here are some of the pics I took along the way.
Above you see the typical trail: a dirt path winding through quiet pine forest without much shrub but some grass. The forest floor was pretty open in some areas and overgrown in others.
Here is a very young pine tree sapling just starting to come up. It almost looks like a palm.
There were new flowers around. This was during the fall months so the flowers were already past their peak but this plant still retained some of the purple. From iNaturalist this was identified as a type of "Blazing Star" (a member of the Liatris genus).
Alongside the pines were oaks. In particular Southern Live Oaks (Quercus virigniana).
A majority of the grass, seen above, was identified as Bushy Bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus) This makes sense since wiki states:
This plant does best in moist soils, and is found naturally in areas such as swamps, wet savannas, pine flatwoods, bogs, and fens. wiki
Despite the later date, it was a warm day and there were plenty of insects flying around. Some even hit into us as we walked. They were "true bugs" for the most part. Above is a Giant Leaf-footed Bug (Acanthocephala declivis). It looks intimidating because of its size but I suspect its harmless if left alone. True bugs do have a strong probiscus for sucking plant nutrients and some have been reported to bite. So maybe it's best to leave this big fella alone and admire him from a distance :)
Here is a smaller bug which the iNaturalist Computer Vision AI guessed was a Shield-backed Pine Seed Bug (Tetyra bipunctata). There were many of these around and based on the name we were definitely in the right habitat for them. BugGuide says that the nymphs and adults of this species feed on the seeds of pines and lay their eggs on neatly in rows on pine needles or grouped in a mass on pine cones.
Despite the warmth we found some lichen...pretty cool. No idea of which species.
There were also some mushrooms growing from the sandy soil. We discovered a lot of earthballs that were already sporulated.
In the bog we found Yellow Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia flava) which are endemic to the southeast United States coastal area. This is also the habitat where Venus Flytraps naturally occur but we failed to find any. There were a lot of signs warning people that it is a crime to pouch these plants as they are a federally protected endangered species. It is a felony to disturb or remove them.
Prickly Pears (Opuntia genus) were common along the trail.
At the start of the trail we found this Golden Silk Spider (Trichonephila clavipes) which was nearly the size of my hand. Magnificent bastard.
Here's a cool plant we found. It was identified as Spiny Spikemoss (Selaginella acanthonota). That name seems a little redundant ;P
Some Trametes shelf fungi growing from a downed pine tree..
Lastly, we found a sign describing how they do managed burns and fire management for this park. This explains why the undergrowth was so lacking in parts of the park which helps preserve the pine trees and bogs for rare and endangered species that rely on that habitat. It was a treat to spend a few hours exploring this place. We'd like to extend our thanks to the management crews helping to preserve this ecosystem. Thank you.
