The Flickr Hollywoodsouthcarolina Image Generatr

Standing along Route 162 and facing eastward. And we're still on the grounds of the Annivesta Missionary Baptist Church.

The intruding tree branch at right foreground excepted, how many Quercus virginiana specimens festooned with Tillandsia usneoides do you see standing by the fence in front of the church?

Or, to translate from BotaniSpeak, how many Southern Live Oaks draped with Spanish Moss do you see there?

For years after taking this photo I assumed there was just one, with an excellent rounded crown, a most noble example of its species.

But then I checked this site on Google Earth Street View. It turns out that there two trees lined up almost perfectly along this line of sight. The nearer one leans toward the camera; the farther, away from it. And when grouped together, they form a greater whole.

I suspect I realized that when I snapped the photo. It certainly would explain why I took the shot from this distance and angle, and why the offending tree branch couldn't be avoided. Had I stepped in front of it, the whole composite tree wouldn't have fit in the frame. But being a naturalist rather than a purveyor of the prettily perfect, I took the shot anyway.

If you perform the Google Earth check I did, you'll see that these two trees are still here. But they seem to be in pretty bad shape, which I would guess is due to at least one hurricane that has hit the Coastal Plain since I ventured by.

The other photos and descriptions of this series can be found in my Botany of the Carolinas Coastal Plain album.

Looking at the tree, also pictured in Part 41, that stands in the graveyard of the the Annivesta Missionary Baptist Church. Now, however, we're facing south-southwestward, and the tree is partially eclipsing a G-type star located 1 Astronomical Unit from South Carolina.

Call me crazy, but I'm just goofy about back-lit tree photos. Freed of distracting detail, they often have a way of emphasizing the subject's ramifying architecture and infusing its crown with beams and threads and clumps of numinous glory.

Here both the host Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) and its freeloading epiphyte, Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides), are busily soaking billions of photons into their chloroplasts and using that flood of solar power to manufacture food for their growing, energy-hungry tissues.

One has to ask. Is their any higher form of life on this planet? Is there any greater reason to live than to bathe oneself in the sunlight?

The other photos and descriptions of this series can be found in my Botany of the Carolinas Coastal Plain album.

On Baptist Hill Road just a little south of its intersection with State Route 162. Looking north-northwestward at the Annivesta Missionary Baptist Church.

In a region notable for its ample supply of picturesque Southern Live Oaks (Quercus virginiana), I found some members of this noble species located on the grounds of this rural house of worship that appealed to me especially.

The characterful old fellow pictured here has a remarkably broad canopy. Because this coastal region certainly qualifies as Hurricane Alley, I wonder if the tree lost its leader to storm winds at some point, and has devoted itself to lateral growth ever since.

In any case, this Live Oak has provided shade and protection from the blast for a sizeable portion of the church's graveyard. And though it's not as heavily festooned with Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides) as some other specimens featured in this series, it's adorned nevertheless with enough long and elegantly dangling strands to give it that requisite Old South look.

The other photos and descriptions of this series can be found in my Botany of the Carolinas Coastal Plain album.