Wet pine savannas are popping off in coastal Miss.

Spring is a special time of the year because the earth comes back to life after winter dormancy. This is especially true for wet pine savannas as a beautiful display of color emerges in March, April and May. 

Wet pine savannas are fire-dependent grasslands that are common throughout the southeastern Coastal Plain. They are essentially wetlands found in flat areas with a high water table. They are maintained by regularly occurring fires that keep woody vegetation from dominating the landscape. 

Keeping shrubs and trees in check allows enough sunlight to reach the ground to support growth and proliferation of grasses, sedges and forbs that make the savannas such a special place. 

One of the first flowers to show up in wet pine savannas in spring are yellow butterworts, or Pinguicula lutea. Butterworts have a small and somewhat delicate single yellow flower that grows on a long, skinny stem. The basal rosette of yellow butterworts is star-shaped and has a sticky, mucous secretion that traps insects. 

The plant digests the insects and absorbs their nutrients to support growth. As such, yellow butterworts are considered carnivorous, which is a great strategy for survival in these systems because the soil is considered nutrient poor. 

Another spring bloomer that often catches the eye are tuberous grasspinks (Calopogon tuberosus). Grasspinks are long-lived perennials in the orchid family that emerge each spring from a small tuber beneath the soil. Established plants can persist for years without blooming, waiting for the right conditions to display their showy flowers. 

Grasspinks are a bit deceptive because their bright colors attract pollinators to visit them, but their visitors are not rewarded with nectar because grasspinks don’t produce it. Even so, pollinators transfer pollen between plants, without getting anything in return. 

Like many forbs in grasslands, this species prefers high light and moist soil and depends on periodic disturbance to reduce competition for light and nutrients and to stimulate flowering. 

One final standout in wet pine savannas right now is Osceola’s plume, known scientifically as Stenanthium densum. This species is a perennial that first emerges from a belowground bulb in February or March and then later flowers in April, May or June. 

The small, cream-colored flowers on the top of the plume open first and blooming continues toward the bottom of the plume over the course of days to weeks. Osceola’s plume produces steroidal alkaloids that deter herbivory, and it often persists for many years in a vegetative state until conditions are right to produce flowers. It often blooms in the spring following a fire when light is more readily available for photosynthesis and the surrounding woody vegetation is at a competitive disadvantage. 

While Osceola’s plume is often associated with high-quality wet pine savannas, it is not as picky as the grasspink and can persist for many years in the absence of fire. 

These are just a few of the wildflowers you can find in wet pine savannas in springtime. These grasslands, when maintained by frequent fire (every two to four years), have the highest plant diversity in North America as they can have as many as 40 plant species within a square meter. 

Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge are two excellent places in coastal Mississippi to check out the incredible plant diversity of wet pine savannas. Make sure to bring your camera if you decide to take a visit. It’s also a good idea to bring along a pair of knee-high boots unless you don’t mind having wet feet. Wet feet or not, it is worth the trip to check out one of these areas for the spring or fall blooming seasons.