In early June, I began working as part of the Seeds of Success (SOS) East program stationed at the North Carolina Botanical Garden. The first few weeks were full of training, herbarium research, organizing gear, searching for potential collection sites, making contacts, and applying for permits. These are all essential tasks of course, but after a few weeks of mostly indoors work, the crew was more than a little antsy to get into the field.
Within the past week, our permits to collect seed have begun to roll in. This was fantastic news for us, because it meant we got to load up and ship out to the North Carolina Outer Banks on Tuesday morning! Our first foray was into the Buxton Woods Coastal Reserve, right next to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. The Outer Banks is a chain of barrier islands; thin strips of sand separating the mainland coast and Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. The islands measure about 3 miles at their very widest points, making it convenient to investigate both the sound side and the ocean side coasts. The Outer Banks is naturally the first part of the North Carolina coast to absorb the effects of hurricanes coming in off the Atlantic. SOS focuses on species that will colonize and stabilize coastal areas, particularly after hurricane damage, so these islands are a great place to find what we are looking for. We have a list of about 160 species targeted for collection.
As soon as we got out and began looking around at Buxton Woods, I was grateful for all the time we have spent in the herbarium and in the keys researching some of our species that may get confused. Having moved to the Southeast fairly recently from the Pacific Northwest, I’ve been confronted with dozens and dozens of unfamiliar taxa. While I can say that my knowledge of the Southeastern flora has grown by leaps and bounds over the past month, I still have so much to learn! Even so, our study of the species list really paid off. Before last month, I couldn’t have told you anything about Schoenoplectus americanus, which is a type of brackish-marsh dwelling sedge also known as chairmaker’s bulrush. At this point, however, I think I will forever recognize Schoenoplectus and the closely-related Bolboschoenus species when I come across them in their watery habitats. S. americanus was one of the first collections we made at Buxton Woods, along with seeds from Juncus roemerianus (black needle rush). I quickly learned to be cautious where you step, not only because of the water mocassins (!), but because the deep marshy mud will suck the boots right off your feet!
Ground level view of Schoenoplectus americanus and Eleocharis fallax, two of the species my crew collected seeds from this week.
Getting those first seeds into the bag was deeply satisfying for me. We were finally doing what we came here to do! The rest of the week was spent exploring the Coastal Reserve system on the Outer Banks, which includes the Currituck Banks and Kitty Hawk Woods Coastal Reserves, in addition to Buxton Woods. We also made collections at the Pine Island Audubon Santuary, where we were fortunate enough to stay at a bunk house on the property. We made about 6 collections for SOS, and did quite a bit of scouting to see which sites contained our species of interest, and where these species were in terms of phenology. I kept a running list of which species we found at each site, which is helping me to learn the plants better and will be useful when we plan to return to each site. Many of the plants we looked at were either still in the vegetative stage, or had just begun to flower. We will revisit each site at intervals through the season to capture the full spectrum of seed maturity times.
My crew hard at work pressing specimens and recording data on Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary
Rhexia mariana, or Maryland Meadow-beauty. This is a species we will revisit at Pine Island in the next month to see when the seeds are mature.
The view out from the dunes at Currituck Banks Coastal Reserve.
We will return to the North Carolina coast next week to continue our collections and reconnaissance. The crew is moving into the full swing of field season, and it feels good. I’ll be saving up our stories until next time.
Til then, cheers! And watch out for snakes.
Emily