Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Large sand volume barrier islands · By Dirk Frankenberg
Early-stage forest
Figure 7. A tree stunted by salt spray. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
Figure 7 shows an earlier and more problematic stage of maritime forest development on Bear Island. Here we see a live oak on which all the seaward branches have been stunted by salt-laden wind off the ocean, leaving only those on the lee side of the trunk to grow. Trees with this growth pattern are said by botanists to be “flagged” because they resemble a flag streaming away from the trunk. The direction of branch growth records the direction from which the most salt laden winds came. Sometimes that is not the direction you might expect. In this case the flag indicated maximum salt stress from the south rather than from the northeast from which the strongest winds blow on this coast.
