Lowcountry botanists Celie Dailey and Richard Porcher give a talk tonight for Native Plant Week

Tuesday October 17, 6:30 pm
Founder’s Hall at Charles Towne Landing
Lecture: Rediscovering the Lowcountry Landscape
Dr. Richard Porcher and Cecelia Dailey

Man and nature have shaped the Lowcountry landscape ever since Native Americans arrived eleven thousand years ago. Native Americans created calcium-rich shell middens, where a rare community, the maritime shell forest, developed. Beginning in the late 1700s, enslaved Africans banked, then cleared, 150,000 acres of tidal freshwater swamp where rice was planted. The abandoned fields today are mostly marsh communities, supporting a plethora of flora and fauna. Many acres of uplands that were cleared for agriculture today support diverse secondary forests, a community unknown before first contact, but nonetheless rich in wildlife. Coastal rivers and uplands were mined for phosphate, leaving the landscape not unlike a bomb-scarred battlefield. Introduced invasive species, like Chinese tallow tree, signal the past footsteps of man. Prescribed fires maintain the longleaf forests, our most biodiverse plant community on the coast. Today’s Lowcountry is a complex and varied landscape that offers unending investigation for the naturalist to enjoy.

Blue Spring, photograph by Cecelia Dailey

Blue Spring, photograph by Cecelia Dailey

Additional activities this week are:

Friday October 20, 5:00-9:00 pm
Native Plant Celebration at Holy City Brewing

Saturday October 21, 9:00am – noon (members can shop at 8:30!)
Fall Native Plant Sale at Charles Towne Landing
Native plant list and prices are available here: http://scnps.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/FinalPlantListWPrices-10.14.17.pdf

More information for each event can be found on our Activity Calendar: http://scnps.org/events/
and on our Facebook Page, under “Events” https://www.facebook.com/SCNPS

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