The “star” of the show – Spigelia marilandica (Indian Pink) — 2019-05-23

In looking at some of my archived images from previous years, it dawned on me that Spigelia marilandica or Indian Pink should be blooming in the upstate of South Carolina. This is a sure favorite of mine with its lipstick-red corolla tube and its yellow-green star-like petals. The two locations I know for this species in Greenville County are about an hour away and relatively easy to get to, so that made it easy to decide to take a few hours to check out their bloom status.

Indian Pink

The first site I visited is one that has a decidedly basic habitat. Most of the soil types in the upstate of South Carolina are acidic, so a basic environment is unusual, and it provides many species that are found farther west and north. This site also provides habitat for a couple of Trillium species as well as other species that can be found in rich cove forests.

The Indian Pink are found on a sloping road cut and under a power line right-of-way. I immediately noticed that the power line right-of-way is being choked by Liriodendron tulipifera or Tulip Poplar — some up to a dozen feet (~4 meters) tall. It won’t be long before the electric company will be there to bush-hog/mow/spray the area to reduce the vegetative growth. I can only hope that they will not spray.

From the road, I could see splashes of red. I had photographed Indian Pink at this site for the past couple of years, so I knew what these splashes of red meant. Not only were there robust Tulip Poplar trees growing on this right-of-way, but also there were dense tangles of a Rubus species or Blackberry as well as Pueraria montana or Kudzu. It’s this last terrible species that would suggest that spraying would be the preferred method of ridding the right-of-way of unwanted vegetation. But I hope not…

In any case, I managed to make it up the slope to those gorgeous red and yellow flowers. The plants were sprinkled here and there — not large groups, but the plants were respectably robust. Here are some of the images I made of the Indian Pink at this first site:

There were dozens of plants from which to choose, and I spent a bit of time selecting flowers that were in pretty good shape. While doing so, I noticed that there were a few plants which produced flowers with an unusual petal color. While the large majority of the Indian Pink flowers I’ve photographed in the past had bright yellow or yellow-green petals, these unusual ones show striped petals of pink bordered by green. Here are a couple of examples of this variation which I have never seen before this field trip:

Close by, were some snowball-looking flower clusters which were, of course, Asclepias variegata or Red-ring Milkweed aka White Milkweed, a preferred plant for the caterpillars of Danaus plexippus or the Monarch butterfly:

After finishing at this first site, I drove to another site for Indian Pink, which is on the Blue Ridge Escarpment — at a higher altitude than the first site. One website describes the Blue Ridge Escarpment as, “The transition zone between the Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces is the Blue Ridge Escarpment, an abrupt change in elevation with a vertical relief that ranges from about 1,300 to 2,500 feet. Its upper boundary generally coincides with the Eastern Continental Divide, which separates river systems that flow westward into the Gulf of Mexico from those that flow eastward into the Atlantic Ocean. The origin of the Blue Ridge Escarpment is uncertain, but it appears to be a product of Cenozoic tectonic uplift and the erosive power of streams. Streams flowing eastward to the Atlantic Ocean generally are shorter, straighter, and more energetic than those flowing westward across the Blue Ridge into the Mississippi River system and into the Gulf of Mexico. Consequently, the Escarpment and Eastern Continental Divide are slowly migrating westward by headward erosion. Although the base of the Escarpment coincides with the Brevard fault zone in a few places, the last known activity along the Brevard fault zone likely occurred over 200 million years ago. Other major faults have not been identified that coincide with the escarpment.”

This particular site provides many hundreds (maybe thousands) of Indian Pink plants which grow on a steep slope beside Highway 276, north of Greenville. Here is a shot taken from the lower portion of a dense population of Indian Pink on the slope. My truck is visible at the base of the slope next to the road:

As is often the case when I attempt to capture dense populations of plants, they don’t show up well — at least as well as what one sees when there, in person. However, here is my attempt to show some of these plants on the slope:

Keep in mind that this represents only a small slice of the slope.

After photographing this large population, I gingerly made it down the slope and back to the truck. As I neared the base, near the road, I spotted a rather rare, but locally abundant shrubby plant that was just coming into bloom. It is Hydrangea arborescens subsp. radiata or Silver leaf Hydrangea. This species is restricted to just a handful of counties in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. As I mentioned, it is locally abundant, especially on the Blue Ridge Escarpment in South Carolina:

Incidentally, the true flowers are those in the center of the cluster, not those 3- and 4-petaled sterile “flowers” along the perimeter of the cluster. The true flowers had not yet opened on this visit. Here is the underside of the leaf, which shows why it is named Silver leaf Hydrangea. The white, silky texture is composed of dense, felt-like hairs. This makes the species quite visible, even from a distance, if there is a slight breeze:

Well, I was quite pleased with the outcome of this brief visit to the upstate of South Carolina. Going back through my image archives provides a good reminder of what might be blooming at a particular time of the year. I’m guessing I have more than 25,000 wildflower images, but the search parameters I use with my archives makes it fairly easy to find what I’m looking for.

There are a few special places I plan to visit in the upcoming months, and I hope to be able to provide you with images of some exciting specimens.

Please stay tuned…

–Jim