List of Plants | Online Resources & Bibliography
The town of Caswell Beach is on Oak Island, a barrier island located in the southeast corner of North Carolina. Its beach faces south. It is in a Plant Hardiness Zone 8. Plants that thrive here must be tolerant of long periods of heat and humidity, and will experience only brief periods of freezing temperatures. High winds and salt spray are also limiting factors. The plant communities on this island include maritime forest, coastal dunes, and marshes.
Much of the native vegetation has been removed as the land is bush hogged for construction, paved over or sodded. The remaining trees and shrubs have been further stressed or outright destroyed by hurricanes which along with the clearing creates abrupt changes in microclimate (amount of sunlight, wind, heat, moisture). Because of this dynamic activity, it is impossible to imagine what the pristine maritime forest looked like. Perhaps, like today's 'natural' areas, the smilax and other vines always created an impassable tangle, and the southern bayberry always grew every which way to gain a place in the sun.
The spectrum of species listed here includes indigenous plants whose range may be limited to the coastal south, as well as migrants from afar that have been introduced and are successfully reproducing themselves.
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