Finding Flora Along Thompson Creek

Thompson Creek

Thompson Creek meanders through the Southern 8^th property in Chesterfield County on the North and South Carolina line providing a diversity of habitats for deer, beavers, racoons, and turkeys. But on this Saturday morning, Brad, Pati, Gerald, and myself were excited to look at the diversity of plants growing along this creek, flowing from the Piedmont into the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. The creek includes a large sandy floodplain to the north and a rocky steep slope on its southern bank and supports a diversity of plant communities. The floodplain has a combination of loblolly pine along with American elm, dogwood, willow oak, and white oak.

Large willow oak in the floodplain

Below the canopy are a diversity of shrubs and small trees including common pawpaw, yellow buckeye, bladdernut, ironwood, and switch cane. This last species, that is well known on floodplains of the Coastal Plan and Piedmont was surprisingly in flower, something that rarely occurs. The pawpaw is always a delight in that it’s a plant from which a song was coined, “Where oh where is little Nellie. Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch.” The spring flowers are a dark brown with a yeasty smell that attracts insects. But only some of the flowers develop into a fruit to be eaten by deer and other animals in October. It’s taste is said to be between a mango and banana!

Pawpaw in flower

Meanwhile, as you step along the stream bank you need to always keep an open eye, looking downward for stinging nettles, a plant that can attack like a wasp if you don’t watch where you are going. Mixed in are a diversity of flower colors including the yellow coreopsis, pink wood sorel, green and purple jack-in-the-pulpit, and yellow golden alexanders. And in the distance, floating on the water of a small pond are what look like little orange boats. Upon closer inspection we see that they are the spent flowers of the trumpet vine, which grows well up into the canopy above.

Gorge rhododendron and mountain laurel on north facing slope

On the south side of Thompson Creek is quite a different story. This north-facing slope provides a cool reprieve from the summer sun as it is steep. This is a perfect place for gorge rhododendron and mountain laurel, two species mostly found further west and at higher elevations of the foothills and mountains. Both were in full flower this day providing a beautiful splash of pink and white flowers from creek-side all the way up almost 100 feet to the ridge above. Later, as we tracked along the slopes, we saw that the bluff above was home to several tree species that prefer dry habitats: Virginia pine, chalk maple, and rock chestnut oak. Once again, these are species more common to rocky mountain slopes. Scattered in between the shrubs were wild ginger, goldenrods, and bracken fern.

Gorge rhododendron

As we made our way back to the headquarters, we stopped to have a look at the prairie restoration project. Even though this area has an abundance of grasses, it’s much more than a pasture. Closer to the pond the grasses give way to sedges and rushes. The field has quite a number of herbs and a few trees that are kept at bay by an annual mowing as a substitute for a more natural fire. We could see that through the year there will be splashes of color from the yellow on the black-eyed Susan, the white of the thoroughworts, and orange of the milkweeds. This diversity will provide a great opportunity for a variety of pollinators.