July 1997

July 9, 1997

Dear fellow SCAN members,

Only a hardy few braved the weather reports and made their way to Statesboro, Georgia for the overnight planned to show us plants not common in or not reaching South Carolina. The faithful were treated to better than expected weather, and some really spectacular botanizing. Superficially, the sites looked like classic sandhill habitat, identical to the sandhills area of South Carolina. There were active gopher tortoise burrows, with very fresh tracks indicating the occupant had heard us coming and retreated. The stars of the weekend were the unusual plants, many at the peak of bloom; for instance, Elliottia racemosa (Georgia Plume) was the star of the weekend, with many plants full of long white spikes of flowers. It makes quite a sight. A small red-purple flower found in the edge of a power-line right-of-way was undoubtedly the strangest flower encountered. It is an uncommon plant of Georgia and Florida, our only species of a one-genus family, Krameriaceae. The sepals are bright red-purple, under five really weird petals; two are scale like and the other three are so modified they look like stamens! And there was hairy-wicky in bloom. The photographers were hard at work, so some photographs are likely to be included at the annual meeting.

A special thank you is extended to Dr. George A. Rogers, retired history professor from Georgia Southern University, who was our guide and background expert for the weekend. With a specialty in botanical history, Dr. Rogers and SCAN seemed a perfect fit. Dee Hope, our vice-president planned the trip, hosting us at the Botanical Garden of Georgia Southern. We had a good time checking out the plant material on display. Then Dee treated all of us to chicken BBQ and pilau (pronounced purloo) on Saturday night! Dee, thank you for such a well planned and hosted trip.

See the Charles Harrold and George Smith SP Flora/Fauna lists

In other SCAN news, we have a published author among us. Jan Ciegler’s paper, Tiger Beetles of South Carolina, has been published in The Coleopterists Bulletin. It includes a key to the twenty-three species of tiger beetles in South Carolina, plus picture, description, and range map for each species. She is to be congratulated! This publication is the result of a great deal of research, organizing and just plain hard work.

July Trip: Wenee Woods, Sumter County
July 26, 1997

The complete trip description and directions, as ably produced by our regional director, Greg Mancini, is available. The secretary would like to add a few extra comments. If you like birds or butterflies, this is your trip. Plus the natural areas along the Black River always yield interesting material. If you have limited mobility, you can still enjoy this trip. Bring your lawn chair and your binoculars and enjoy the birds and the butterflies and even the bees from seated comfort under a shade tree.