Winter at the beach: Cold winds along the dunes, clouds scudding along above us.
Where last summer the children and dogs romped, the beach now is dominated by plaintive little wading birds picking at a jellyfish. You could stroll along with a cup of coffee, composing a sonnet. Yes, the beach is different in the winter.
Behind our Southern beaches are the dune lines, well-represented along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Maryland to Louisiana, with a characteristic list of plant species including a reasonably monotonous list of herbs, grasses, and woody plants, from north to south.
The plants that grow along the dunes, or even behind them, are situated away from the strongest winds and salt spray, somewhat protected from the ravaging conditions of the beach itself.
Still, many of the plants along the dunes will feature modifications that help them deal with intense sunlight, winds and salt spray (sand-spray, too, for that matter). These modifications include thick, succulent stems and leaves — you might think of a prickly-pear cactus.
Many of these species exhibit a thick, waxy covering over the stems and leaves. We call this waxy covering the cuticle. Such a coating makes the leaves more durable, almost like a coating of plastic, and many of the plants in this habitat will have tough, leathery leaves as well.
These plants commonly feature at least some ability to grow in a mound, or close to the ground, thereby avoiding wind gusts. This is even true for the resident shrubs and trees. Much of the plant life along the back dunes grows in dense thickets.
Our mystery plant is a woody vine, with massive underground bases, and it grows close to the ground, or sometimes in piled-up, bowering masses, forming a dense, nearly impenetrable cover on the dunes.
The stems are a bit spiny, and the leaves on them are really variable in terms of size and shape up and down the stem. The leaf blades tend to be more or less oblong, and the larger ones are often sort of violin-shaped, with a somewhat narrowed waist.
The flowers are small, about an inch across, pale yellow, and in clusters. There are three sepals and petals, and they are essentially identical to each other, star-shaped. In the summer will appear a green berry, and each will ripen to a reddish-purple, and will hang on through the winter. The berry will contain 2-3 hard seeds.
It turns out this species received its scientific name from Thomas Walter, one of the first important botanists working in America. Walter was an Englishman living in South Carolina (along the Santee River) while it was still a colony in the midst of revolution.
There are some details about his life and politics that aren’t really clear, but one thing is true. He was definitely an important botanist. His keynote publication, “Flora Caroliniana,” which featured lots of new species (including this week’s mystery plant) was published posthumously in 1788.
John Nelson is the curator of the A. C. Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences. As a public service, the herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org, call 803-777-8196 or email nelson@sc.edu.
Answer: “Dune catbrier,” Smilax auriculata