by Carol Ann McCormick
Curatrix, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU)
On a recent Sunday in October it was chilly in the early morning but the forecast promised clear and 70° F by mid-afternoon, so we leashed our dog and hopped in the car for the 1.25 hour drive to Caraway Creek Preserve in Randolph County. We’d visited the Preserve only once before, in late January, 2024, so I thought a visit while there are still some autumn flowers would be fun.
Caraway Creek Preserve is owned and managed by Piedmont Land Conservancy. It has about 4 miles of trails winding through the 167-acre preserve. “A main feature of the preserve is a historic check dam, seen from the Caraway Forks Trail. This dam was likely built in the early 1900s as a method for silt-retention and flood prevention. Its large size and considerable craftsmanship are best appreciated in person,” according to the Preserve’s website.1 In fact, the dam and the fact that we’d appreciated the rattling seeds of a Bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia) along the Caraway Creek were my only clear memories of our previous visit. Caraway Creek Preserve is about 2.2 air mi south-southwest of the main cluster of peaks labeled as “Caraway Mountain” (latitude 35.758507, longitude -79.896065 +/- 1600 m) on the Glenola topographic map.
As we wended our way through Alamance, Chatham, and Randolph Counties, I pondered the origin of the name “Caraway Creek”. The culinary herb caraway (Carum carvi) is not native to North America, but perhaps an early European settler was well known for cultivating it. Or perhaps it was the family name of someone who lived in the area, or perhaps there was a local baker renown for her seeded rye bread. The answer is that “Caraway” is an anglicization of a Native American word, Keyauwee (or Keeauwee), the name of an Indian tribe inhabiting the area. “The Keyauwee Indians, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, were living in a town surrounded by palisades located near the Uwharrie River in present-day Randolph County. Nestled in a valley surrounded by cornfields, their village was vulnerable to attack, and their numbers, according to the chronicles of John Lawson, were minimal. Shortly after Lawson’s 1701 visit, the Keyauwee relocated. Joining with the Tutelo, Saponi, Occaneechi, and others in 1714, they briefly found shelter at Fort Christanna, an outpost and reservation established by Virginia’s governor Alexander Spotswood. After a few years the Keyauwee left to join with the Saura (Cheraw) and the Peedee on the Pee Dee River in South Carolina, where they carried on a trade in deerskins with Charleston traders. The Keyauwee allied with their Indian neighbors in the 1715 Yamassee War against South Carolina, after which they joined other Siouan-speaking people in the Catawba Nation.”2 The Keyauwee are amongst us today, as “their ancestors continue to live in the region, first as refugees, now as kin among the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (Orange / Alamance Counties), the Waccamaw, (Bladen / Columbus Counties), the Catawba in South Carolina, and numerous other indigenous communities.”3
From looking at USGS Topographic maps I had thought that Caraway Mountain was a small group of four or five clustered peaks east of Caraway Creek and north of US 64, just northwest of Asheboro. However, I learned that the Caraway Mountains are considered to be a small mountain range located between Asheboro and Lexington (Davidson County) and the northernmost peaks of the Uwharrie Mountains. “Prominent peaks in the area are Caraway Mountain, Back Creek Mountain, Daves Mountain, Ridges Mountain, and Mount Shepherd, the latter at 1,150 feet (350 m) being the highest point in Randolph County.” 4 While Mark, Luna and I have explored Ridges Mountain (owned by the NC Zoo) and Mount Shepherd (owned by Mount Shepherd Retreat Center with conservation easement by Piedmont Land Conservancy), we have yet to explore the other peaks of the Caraway Mountains. It is worth noting that Caraway Creek Preserve does NOT include any of these peaks.
I’d first become aware of Caraway Creek and Caraway Mountains from plant specimens curated in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU). On May 11, 1956, Dr. Al Radford (1918- 2006) collected many plants at “Caraway Creek near US 64 west of Asheboro.” All were used to document the flora of the county for the Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas, published by University of North Carolina Press in 1968. The “Manual” (colloquially known as “The Green Book” or “Radford”), was the standard for plant identification for the entire southeastern United States for decades. Dr. Radford, lead author of the Manual, used various spellings for Caraway Creek and Caraway Mountains: “Carroway”, “Carraway”, and “Caraway” can be found on his herbarium labels.
Dr. C. Ritchie Bell (1921-2013), third co-author of the Manual, collected plants in the Caraway Creek area. He visited the Caraway area at least three times during 1958; those specimens were deposited in the Herbarium and were used to document the plants of Randolph County for the Manual. Dr. Bell grew up in Asheville, North Carolina and earned both A.B. (1947) and M.A. (1949) degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He returned to Carolina in 1951 to teach botany, and in 1961 became the Founder of the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Dr. Bell retired from the Directorship of the Garden in 1986, but was very active in its affairs until his death. The Ritchie Bell Conference Room in Building A of the North Carolina Botanical Garden’s Education Center is named in his honor.
It is interesting that Harry E. Ahles (1924-1981), second co-author of the Manual and the most prolific collector of specimens in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium, collected very few specimens in Randolph County. Out of 19,594 specimens collected by Ahles, we have found one (!) he collected in Randolph County. On 6 August, 1958, Ahles then graduate student James A. Duke collected 82 specimens in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and a single specimen, Coreopsis tripteris, 5.5 miles east of Asheboro on US 64 in Randolph County (NCU accession # 117857). I suspect Randolph County was a pit-stop enroute to their intended botanizing destinations in Mecklenburg County.
Lionel Melvin (1907-1997), a well known North Carolina nurseryman, collected many vascular plants in the Caraway Creek / Caraway Mountains area. Mr. Melvin was one of the first to promote the use of native plants in home landscapes. He was a founding member of the North Carolina Wild Flower Preservation Society, now known as the North Carolina Native Plant Society. Over the years, he propagated and distributed a number of unusual forms of our native trees, shrubs and wildflowers at his commercial nursery in Pleasant Garden, Guilford County. According to Lionel Melvin’s daughter, Sandra, “Dad’s education was to attend a one-room school house that his father built on his land [in Bladen County, North Carolina]. My grandfather’s sisters were the teachers. My family had a thing about educating the girls and not worrying too much about the boys. It continued into my father’s generation. All my grandfather’s sisters had college degrees, most in education and one in pharmacy. The pharmacist [aunt] had studied botany, and she influenced Dad as he grew up.” Lionel Melvin entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1932, but the financial stress of the Depression and a severe bout with Red Measles forced him to withdraw. Although Melvin did not complete an undergraduate degree, he did form a life-long friendship and scientific collaboration with Dr. Henry Roland Totten in the Botany Department at Chapel Hill. While NCU was his primary repository, Melvin’s herbarium specimens can also be in other herbaria across North America. “He had a cabinet full of [plant specimens] at his home,” recalls his daughter, Sandra. “I remember him putting them between blotters and strapping them to press them. I remember visiting Chapel Hill as a child when Dad went down there. I played in the arboretum [Coker Arboretum] with my younger brother while Dad visited the Herbarium [which was in Davie Hall, adjacent to the Coker Arboretum]. That would have been in the 1950’s.”5
Our October hike was pleasant — by the end of the hike I had reduced my clothing layers to shorts and t-shirt. Only ten minutes into our hike, Mark spotted a large fern growing in a sunny area along what is likely an ephemeral stream along the old road that serves as the trail in that area of the Preserve. I scrambled down for a closer look. It was a large patch of a non-native fern, False Maiden-fern or Mariana Maiden Fern (Macrothelypteris torresiana). It is indeed Macro — it will take multiple herbarium sheets to accommodate the single frond that I collected! This fern, native to tropical Asia and Africa, is a plant on the move, having spread from the nursery trade into woodland edges. The University of Florida’s Assessment of Non-native Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas rates False Maiden-fern as a high risk to that state’s natural areas.6 Closer to home the North Carolina Native Plant Society includes False Maiden-fern on “Watchlist A: Exotic plant species that cause problems in adjacent states but have not yet been reported to cause problems in NC. At this time, more information is needed.” 7 The specimen from Caraway Creek Preserve in Randolph County — still in my plant press, so not represented on the map yet — will be one more data point for assessing Macrothelypteris torresiana as a threat to fields and forests in North Carolina.
While Mark was admiring an extensive patch of Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana), I espied a fine patch of another flowering non-photosynthetic plant, Hairy Pinesap (Hypopitys lanuginosa). “This is the “red” color form taxon of the Hypopitys group. It is a very small saprophytic herb with no chlorophyll, and the whole plant is bright red or deep pink. It is a slender, single-stemmed plant growing only to about 4-6 inches tall, with many small, ovate, clasping leaves covering the stem — like scales. When in bloom, the top of the stem droops, such that the cluster of several flowers — each about 1/2-inch long and the same color as the stem — is reminiscent of a seahorse! These flowers dangle with the openings at the bottom. The sister species is colored in tan, crème, pale yellow, or pale salmon, but otherwise has a similar growth form. Normally, several to many plants grow in a dense stand, often just 1-2 inches apart from other individuals. It is surprising that it has taken well into the 21st Century for these two forms — which bloom at considerably different times and with clearly different colors — to both be described as good species,” says Bruce Sorrie on NC-Biodiversity.com. 8 It is one of my favorite wildflowers, and I was pleased to see it in fine fruiting form.
Some plants I just don’t see often enough to be certain of their identity in just one glance. Such is the case with Sweet-leaf, or Horse-sugar (Symplocos tinctoria). When in bloom in spring it’s very distinctive with clusters of yellow flowers. However, in October… not so much! One quick way is to give a leaf a taste — it comes by the name “Sweetleaf” honestly! A nice counterbalance to Sweetleaf is the taste of a leaf of Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) which is very common throughout Caraway Creek Preserve.
Miraculously Mark spotted a group of Lesser Ladies-tresses (Spiranthes ovalis var. erostellata) , a truly diminutive native terrestrial orchid, in a sea of Southern Ground-cedar. “The inflorescence is usually only 2-3 inches tall and barely 1/2-inch wide, and thus a person can easily walk past a blooming plant in the shade of a forest if not carefully watching. Also, the species does not occur in colonies, so normally only a few scattered individuals are seen. The species should be readily identified by its fall blooming period, its rather small but narrowly ovate inflorescence, and especially in its deep shade habitat of rich or moist forests. Most biologists do not spend much time in fall walking the interior of moist forests looking for flowering species, as wooded borders, fields, powerline clearings, and other open or semi-open habitats are where most species are in bloom in the fall season,” says Bruce Sorrie.8 We’d already spotted two other terrestrial orchids already in seed, Rattlesnake Orchid (Goodyera pubescens) and Cranefly Orchid (Tipularia discolor), so it was a three-orchid day. We’d been on the lookout for Puttyroot Orchid (Aplectrum hyemale) and Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza), but no luck on this hike.
After admiring the historic dam, I endeavored to not tumble down an exceedingly steep slope above Caraway Creek while documenting a fine population of White Wood-aster (Eurybia divaricata, formerly known as Aster divaricatus). This plant had been documented with an herbarium specimen only once in Randolph County: October of 1958 by Ritchie Bell, along the Deep River near the small community of Level Cross (NCU Accession # 186546). This plant had been on my mental “find” list, so it was gratifying to find it… and not kill myself in the process.
The mosquitoes were surprisingly voracious along this stretch of Caraway Creek, so we did not tarry long to admire a large patch of Shining Clubmoss (Huperzia lucidula). This plant does not reproduce by seeds, rather it reproduces by spores. Shining Clubmoss is a good “winter botany” plant, as it is evergreen, but as it is only 6 inches tall, you can miss it if your gaze is not on the ground. Shining Clubmoss is common in the mountains of North Carolina, but becomes less so as one moves eastward out of the piedmont.
Every hike has its memorable aspects. “The dam is pretty spectacular,” said Mark. “The Spiranthes was a good find, as was the Hairy Pinesap, and the crazy big False Maiden-fern was new to me. Any walk where I learn a new plant is a good walk.” This hike featured an innovation in trail lunch: instead of the usual fruit, crackers and cheese, we packed pupusas and curtido I’d purchased the day before from the talented ladies of the Iglesia Pentacostal de Jesucristo Poder de Dios on NC 54 just west of Carrboro. Combined with hot tea from a thermos, this trail lunch will set the gold standard going forward!
Keep exploring new places, keep learning new plants, and keep innovating new trail lunches — Happy Trails!
SOURCES:
1. Caraway Creek Preserve. Piedmont Land Conservancy. https://www.piedmontland.org/carawaycreekpreserve/ accessed 21 Oct 2024.
2. Green, Michael D. 2006. “Keyauwee Indians”. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, William S. Powell, editor. University of North Carolina Press. https://www.ncpedia.org/keyauwee-indians accessed on 21 Oct 2024.
3. Akins, D. 2018. Terra Nullius: Guilford College Before Guilford College. https://library.guilford.edu/c.php?g=1154043&p=8423178 accessed 21 Oct 2024.
4. “Caraway Mountains” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caraway_Mountains accessed on 21 Oct 2024.
5. McCormick, Carol Ann. 2007. Collectors of the UNC Herbarium: Lionel Dane Melvin. http://labs.bio.unc.edu/Peifer/melvin.htm accessed on 25 Oct 2024.
6. Macrothelypteris torresiana. University of Florida: Assessment of Non-native Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas. https://assessment.ifas.ufl.edu/site/assets/files/24294/macrothelypteris_torresiana_wra2016.pdf accessed on 21 Oct 2024.
7. Invasive, non-native plant species lists 11/7/2023. North Carolina Native Plant Society. https://ncwildflower.org/invasive-exotic-species-list/ accessed on 21 Oct 2024.
8. LeGrand, H., B. Sorrie, and T. Howard. 2024. Vascular Plants of North Carolina [Internet]. Raleigh (NC): North Carolina Biodiversity Project and North Carolina State Parks. Available from https://auth1.dpr.ncparks.gov/flora/index.php.