Kiawah’s Maritime Forest
T
he maritime forest is critical to the diversity of wildlife on Kiawah Island. Ultimately, almost all the animals
here depend upon it, directly or indirectly, for their survival. It is essential to the natural beauty of the Island and to the
privacy of our homes. It is also the part of Kiawah’s environment that individual property owners can do the most to
protect.
The maritime forest found on Kiawah is composed of three basic elements:
1. Native canopy trees, so called because they form a canopy, or umbrella over the areas
beneath.
• Examples of canopy trees include: water oak, live oak, laurel oak, loblolly pine,
slash pine and southern magnolia.
• The canopy provides habitat for raptors, such as ospreys, hawks, kites and bald
eagles as well as other bird species.
2. Below the canopy we find the native understory, consisting of small trees and shrubs
that usually reach half the height of the canopy trees.
• Examples of vegetation in the understory are: wax myrtle, yaupon holly, red
buckeye, red bay, southern red cedar, dwarf palmetto, cabbage palmetto,
beauty berry (shrub), saw palmetto (shrub) and Carolina sweet shrub.
• The maritime forest understory is an essential habitat for many mammals,
including bobcats, deer, fox and raccoons, as well as numerous small birds.
3. At ground level are the native small shrubs, groundcovers, ferns and woodland
flowers that, along with falling leaves, nuts and cones, make up the forest floor.
• Examples of vegetation characterized as groundcover include: Christmas
fern, bracken fern, butterfly weed, goldenrod, sweetgrass, coral bean,
trumpet creeper (vine), Virginia creeper (vine), coral honeysuckle (vine)
and cross vine.
• Groundcover provides habitat for small mammals, reptiles such as snakes
and skinks, amphibians and insects.
It is these diverse elements that combine to create a natural, viable
habitat for a wide range of wildlife. The forest areas on the Island are also
places where native trees, shrubs, vines, groundcover, ferns and flowers
are found.
The understory of a natural forest is essential to the survival
of the forest. The tree canopy has to continuously replace itself. At
any given moment, tree species occurring in the canopy are also
found in the understory in the seedling and sapling stages. As trees
are lost from the canopy due to wind, old age, or disease, other trees
are ready to fill in the gap. A forest with its understory removed may
have a park-like appearance, but in the long run, it will not survive
because it cannot replace itself. n
Canopy
Understory
Ground Cover
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