Phenology Blog

For my spring break, I went on vacation to St. Helena Island, South Carolina. I had never spent an extended period of time in the south and was not at familiar with the local flora that I encountered. St. Helena is a very swampy area home to trees with massive drooping canopies and tentacle like branches. Upon doing some research, I discovered that these trees are more than likely live oaks. While the exact species of tree was very difficult for me to find, I was also able to recognize a few more oak and maple species. The trees that took me the least amount of time to recognize are the palm trees that lined major roads and grew close to the sandy beaches.

While the flora of South Carolina was drastically different than that of Burlington, though the fauna was more familiar. The particular island I stayed on was home to more deer than I had ever seen, there were patches of them every fifty yards or so. Near watery areas, terrapin crossing signs could be seen on the sides of roads and pelicans sat at the ends of docks.

After spending half a year visiting my phenology spot nearly biweekly, I still have difficulty classifying it as a wetland or woodland. Sure at first glance it appears to be like any other forest, however, within this wooded area is that small drainage pond. This provides a habitat for aquatic and amphibian species during certain times of the year as well as some wetland plants. My phenology spot is a hybrid of the two ecosystems, as there is both a wetland and woodland in the area. Should one be prefaced over the other, I would argue that my phenology spot is a woodland however. This is due to the fact that the pond is not in the middle of the woods, but lies between the woods and the parking lot, and is therefore not a central part of my phenology spot as a whole. My spot is also too small and impacted by humans to be considered a wildland.