Beaches, bays, and marshes come to mind most readily when I think about coastal environments. But the Gulf Coast also boasts a variety of wooded landscapes that provide crucial habitat for many animals and serve as buffers against storms. In the photo below, a Great Egret fishes along a wooded coastal creek in late December. One consequence of the moist, warm regional climate is that many woodlands tend to stay green and blooming well into the winter.
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Great Egret (Ardea alba)
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I love the diversity of these coastal forests. The canopy trees may be hardwoods like black gum, water oak, or live oak; pine species; or a mixture of both. Several of these trees, like the water oak, can be found across much of the southeastern U.S., while others, such as the southern live oak, are highly representative of coastal ecosystems.
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Slash pine (Pinus elliottii) is a common, fire-resistant tree in coastal woodlands. Note also its broad patches of bark.
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| Water oaks (Quercus nigra) typically have smaller leaves, but these saplings were growing in to the understory, and therefore needed more leaf surface area to capture sunlight. |
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| This is a typically enormous live oak (Quercus virginiana). These trees grow rapidly in the first few decades of life. |
The understory trees and shrubs of coastal woods are particularly interesting, since they tend to bear obvious adaptations to the ever-changing environment. For example, there are a number of species that are evergreen and have waxy leaves: features that help to prevent desiccation and protect against the fires that were once natural, expected occurrences on the coast. In more recent decades, prescribed burning has aided in forest recovery.
Swamp bay and wax myrtle are two of these common evergreen coastal trees (or shrubs, depending on their growth pattern). Both species produce provide cover for animals during the winter, and their flowers and fruits can attract many birds and other wildlife. The wax myrtle’s leaves are smoother and have wavier margins than those of the swamp bay.
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| Swamp bay (Persea palustris) |
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| Wax myrtle (Morella cerifera) |
A little farther inland, mountain laurel is often a surprisingly common understory plant. It usually grows in montane forests in the northerly portions of its range, but it may be found in low-lying areas in the coastal region. Like the swamp bay and the wax myrtle, it has thick, waxy, evergreen leaves. While birds and insects may enjoy feeding from its flowers, it is highly toxic to most other animals.
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| Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) |
Of course, not all understory plants of the Gulf Coast have a typical tree-like growth form. The dramatically spiky, waving fronds of the saw palmetto give panache to the forest floor. Like other palm species, saw palmettos stay green all year. Their berries provide food for a multitude of wildlife species.
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Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens)
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What of the non-shrub understory plants of these coastal woods? Well, switch cane is one of the most noticeable. This is especially true during the winter, when many of the herbaceous—or non-woody—plants have died back, and only the toughest of them, the graminoids—a group that includes grasses and sedges—are left to provide groundcover. Canes and bamboos actually belong to the grass family, which isn’t surprising when you consider their shape and growth habits. Being a native bamboo, switch cane commonly grows in low-lying, swampy habitats. In other words, don’t necessarily expect to find it in urban areas! Of course, if it does happen to be growing there, leave it be. Native plants deserve a chance to thrive.
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| Switch cane (Arundinaria tecta) |
As always, there are countless other plant species that you may find in these coastal woods. Winter along the coast doesn’t always look the way that you might expect, and there is always a lot of greenery in the woods. As the season gradually shifts into early spring, however, watch for changes—particularly the proliferation of herbaceous plants along the ground and the blossoming of some of the trees and shrubs in the other forest layers. It’s always nice to have an excuse to duck into a comparatively cool, shady woodland after a long walk at the beach on a sunny spring day!
