Exquisite, Ephemeral, & Endangered – The Rocky Shoals Spider Lily

By Tom Poland

 

Last week photographer Robert Clark and I tried on two successive days to make our way into a place in eastern Georgia known as Anthony Shoals. You may never have heard of the place but I assure you naturalists, botanists, kayakers, and artists have. We went to photograph a national plant of concern, the rocky shoals spider lily. (It’s endangered in Georgia.) The dense understory, rocky terrain, raging creeks, and steep bluffs made the going tough. ’Twas rough as a cob; rough as a night in a South Georgia jail. Our mission failed. We’ll be back though, and next time we’ll succeed.

This time of year I seek out the rocky shoals spider lilies in South Carolina and Georgia for a beautiful reason: they’re in bloom. I’ve written about Anthony Shoals before, and my column, “Anthony Shoals Lives On,” is one of my more popular pieces of late. Each day it attracts readers for a simple reason: we’ve lost most places like it. Anthony Shoals managed to dodge not one but two impoundments, the killer of so many shoals which are the preferred habitat of the lilies I so admire.

Colonies of this plant live on the Catawba River at Landsford Canal State Park, in Chester County, South Carolina, and that’s where I spirited off to Sunday morning. There you can gaze upon the water and its dense clusters of lilies, perhaps the world’s largest colony. Lucky kayakers darted in and out of the majestic clumps.

Trace the Fall Line across South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama to get a general fix on where the lilies live. Folks around the Hightower Shoals on the Flint River in Talbot and Upson Counties, Georgia, get to enjoy the lilies. People find them too in the Hargrove Shoals in the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge near West Blocton in Bibb County, Alabama. Some colonies survive in the Savannah River below the Augusta Canal Dam. There’s a magnificent colony on a creek in McCormick County, South Carolina.

 

Anthony Shoals Spider Lilies, by Philip Juras, http://www.philipjuras.com/  

 

So there Robert and I were in a remote area trying to see the shoals up close. In particular, we wanted to photograph Hymenocallis coronaria, an aquatic, perennial flowering plant species endemic to the Southeastern United States. In plain talk that’s the lily referenced above. You’ll only find these beautiful white lilies in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, though I hear but can’t confirm that a few live in North Carolina. They’re closer than you think MidlandsLife readers. When you exit Columbia on I-126 and cross the bridge over the Broad River glance to your right and you will see several clumps of the rocky shoals spider lily, which is related to the amaryllis.

 

 

I find it interesting that these rare lilies grow on the Catawba and Cahaba Rivers, two similar-sounding names. Folks in Alabama call it the Cahaba lily; elsewhere it is known as the shoal lily. In Georgia, it is usually called the shoals spider lily. Most botanists and conservationists I know call it the “rocky shoals spider lily,” a name that comes from its preferred habitat: rivers where fast-flowing, oxygen-rich water runs over rocks. This stunning perennial grows to three feet in height in direct sunlight. Flowing water carry its seeds away and when they land in a rocky crevice, they can form a colony—if conditions are right.

William Bartram saw rocky shoals spider lilies during his travels through Georgia in the 1700s. Of them, he wrote: “Nothing in vegetable nature was more pleasing than the odoriferous Pancratium fluitans.” (Today, the scientific name is Hymenocallis coronaria.)

Over at Anthony Shoals, Robert and I hoped to see the lilies in bloom. Never did but some friendly fishermen showed us cell phone photos they took. Elegant white flowers arching over dense green stems festooned the rocks in thick clusters. Each plant, you’ll note upon close examination, sends up one to three flower stalks and as many as six to nine flowers adorn each stalk. The plant’s beauty lures collectors, another reason it’s in danger.

Anthony Shoals escaped man’s scheming. That the shoals exist is miraculous. The U.S. Government Printing Office produced a book in 1905. The book, US Doc 445, Contributions to the Hydrology of the Eastern United States, discusses river flow and drops and falls where man might have gained a bit of power thanks to gravity’s incessant pull on water. In it is frightening information for anyone who admires Anthony Shoals and its lilies.

“The river bottoms are wide up to the foot of Anthony Shoals, 5.25 miles from the mouth of the river. Here is the finest power site on the river, there being a fall of 58 feet in 1.75 miles, with rock bottom and rock bluffs on each side. A dam at this point would be 1,000 feet long. The rock is granite and would furnish excellent material for building purposes.”

Men never got around to building a dam there. Today the shoals are mostly left alone except for fishermen and river runners, a hardy crew much akin to naturalists. Few people get to know and appreciate a river or its shoals like serious paddlers. From Paddle Georgia, A Project Of Georgia River Network, I found this passage written by Ben Emanuel:

“The river at Anthony Shoals is wide and multi-channeled, with shoal ledges and rock islands that you could explore all day if you wanted to. The site is also home to a healthy population of shoal lilies, and we were lucky to see many of them still blooming … The whitewater was not out of this world, but I really can’t get over what a remarkable place Anthony Shoals is. As you come down the final run of whitewater and dump into the flat water at the top of the reservoir in which the Broad River effectively ends, rising above you on the right bank is a great, tall slope covered with gorgeous hardwood forest. Looking back up at the shoals from there, you see countless channels of water streaming down through small islands and, on the left against the bluff, patches of lilies. The place is incredible.”

Rocky river passages make a great place to escape the monotonous modern world for a bit. My favorite thing to do is to explore places far from the masses where I see evidence of those who came before us and can ponder the world they knew before dams and electricity changed things forever. Wherever you find rocky shoals spider lilies, chances are good you have found such a place. Next spring go up to Landsford Canal. The flowers don’t last long so learn what you can about them and strike out up Highway 21 next May and June.

 

 

 

Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
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Tom Poland is the author of seven books and more than 700 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press will soon release his and Robert Clark’s book, Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture.