♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (Beryl) Oooh...there are briers all over the place, growing over the concrete!

Nature has a way of sneaking out and grabbing manmade things, as you can see along the sidewalk.

A beautiful day!

It's warm for fall.

It sure is!

Hello, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Have you ever lamented that, living in the city, you miss the joy and excitement of nature?

You really don't have to.

If you simply look, nature is all around us.

That's the thesis we're going to try to prove today.

We are visiting a vacant lot on a busy street in a city that could be your city.

Rudy Mancke, our guide and teacher for this experiment, is Natural History Curator of the State Museum.

Viewers are going to say, "Why come to a vacant lot?"

Most people who are going to say that have never looked closely at what lives there.

Today will be fun, because we've come to a place that humans have affected distinctly.

We're going to see living things brought here by man that aren't supposed to be here.

Other things have come here of their own free will.

It might be fun to separate the two, point out those things that man had a hand in.

Things close at hand can be as interesting as things far away.

It's a challenge, but things close at hand can be interesting.

We'll try to prove that today.

We don't have to go far.

You can see a little insect on the yellow composite, feeding on the plant.

One of the leaf-footed bugs.

If you look on those back legs, they're flattened, shaped like a leaf.

Isn't that a stink bug?

Stink bug is another general name.

He takes a tube, sticks it into the plant, and sucks juices out of the plant.

The composites are doing so well this time of the year.

That's one of the composites with flowers and fruit on it at the same time.

Let's check this tree out.

We're talking about things that aren't supposed to be here.

This tree is really common in large cities, not like New York City, called the tree-of-heaven because the flowers are very fragrant in the spring.

Ailanthus is another name for it.

It's not even native to North America.

It's one of those trees that's been brought over and escaped.

It does a good job here.

Not many leaves on it, but they're compound leaves.

If you get one of these little leaflets off-- not the best smell in the world-- it's a very distinct aroma.

It's sort of a smelly leaf!

Why is this the tree-of-heaven?

The flowers, and the problem I have is they're so numerous.

They really smell too sweet.

Have you ever smelled something so sweet it's almost sickening?

That's the feeling I get from this tree.

It does well, coming out of what looks like concrete and yet doing fairly well.

This tree can put up with pollution better than many native trees.

It seems to do extra-well in situations like this.

We're going to see that in other instances today.

You've got convincing to do.

I'm like the rest of the people...this vacant lot?

There's a lot of trash here, but now look what that funnel web spider's done.

From this angle, that doesn't look like a funnel web spider.

I don't know why you call it a funnel web.

At the right angle, you see the web almost spirals down into a tube.

It really is funnel-shaped!

Funnel web spider is a good name.

The spider stays inside there.

The webbing is not really sticky, but the insect that's flying by gets trapped in this, bounces around, and while he's trying to figure out how to get out, the spider dashes out, injects venom through the fangs, and makes a meal out of it.

These spiders are found throughout the state.

The way that spider got here most probably-- you remember this tree here was brought in by man.

The way the spider got here is simply by a process called ballooning.

The little spiderlings will extrude silk in a good breeze.

Once the tug is strong enough, they let go.

And just go wherever.

Just float off like a balloon.

That's the name ballooning... implies that it is floating like a balloon.

They float out and land on ships at sea.

They go 30,000 feet in the sky, all over the place!

That's one way these animals get distributed...naturally.

A good way to see the world, have a little adventure!

Cheap too... it's very easy.

Here is a shrub that probably most people know.

It's not native to South Carolina, and when you see it, it's sneaked in.

I bet everybody has Ligustrum somewhere.

It's Ligustrum, or privet, used for hedgerows, hedges, and as an ornamental around the house.

The fruit this time of year is on, but it's not edible by people.

Birds take advantage of it to a small degree.

The leaves are almost leathery feeling and stay on during the winter, and that makes it an attractive plant.

When you're walking through the woods, you see little clusters of these exotic plants.

Usually when you find that, it tells you that that's an old homesite.

That in the past, there was a house there.

A lot of people-- that's a good clue.

They begin to search for old bottles, this, that, and the other.

Signs of civilization?

Exactly...whenever you see this plant, you think humans have been active in that area.

Somebody else has been active.

Look at that fire ant mound.

(Rudy) Why don't we poke it and see if somebody's home!

(Beryl) You do the poking!

You see I'm not using my finger.

I think you've aroused a few folks.

I think it's clear that those are fire ants.

If I had a finger down there, I would be getting stung now by large numbers of individuals.

All of those are females.

The females in the insect world were kind of running the show.

Where are the male fire ants?

Male fire ants are produced-- there may be a few there.

They're usually winged, produced this time of the year and earlier in the summer, only to mate with queens that are produced.

We call it swarming.

The queens have wings, the males have wings, they fly off in the sky...mate.

The males die and don't do well.

The queens store those sperm, hibernate, overwinter, and start new colonies everywhere.

These things are strategically located.

Why?

They are right next to a concrete wall.

Notice, also, that it's the wall facing the sun most of the day.

During colder weather, when the ground may freeze down a few inches, it's not going to freeze here.

This will pick up heat to keep the ground warm.

Those animals have a better opportunity of making it over winter.

If they had built that nest pile somewhere else in this field, their percentages for making it through winter would be a little smaller.

It's almost as if they figured it out, or maybe it's just haphazard.

These are not native to South Carolina.

They sure have taken over!

They have been introduced and are now spreading all over the state.

Why don't we head this way and look at a couple things.

Look at the little ailanthus tree pushing up through the asphalt...pretty powerful!

Here's a tree with fruit.

You remember-- we're reviewing today, but it's good to do that.

It's another alien plant...a mimosa.

Mimosa-tree with a vine in it with red fruit called coral beads.

In the winter, all you see are bright red strings of fruit, which look like beads.

Poisonous?

It's not edible...it's not terribly poisonous, either.

This one we see a lot this time of year...dog fennel.

Seed are blown all over the place, so that's the way they get here.

I keep seeing a few holes here.

Here are some-- yeah, look here!

Here are some animals-- let's break off a little bit of grass-- found throughout the state.

They're native, and they dig burrows in the ground, straight down.

They're the larvae of a little beetle called tiger beetle.

Let's see if I can get one of them to grab on the end of this, pull him out-- there he is!

Let's take a look.

He landed on the leaf.

That little larva is something else.

He's not going to do well in the sun.

I don't think he's real happy with you!

He's got a flat-topped head with two large mandibles that he sticks into insects.

He crawls to the top of the burrow, puts the flat side of the head against the ground.

Insect doesn't see him, walks by, and he kills it.

He changes eventually into a metallic green beetle called a tiger beetle.

You wouldn't predict that from the way he looks as a larva.

Metamorphosis is unbelievable!

That's happening around our homes as well as in the woods.

Nature and man are one and the same.

I'm going to put him back in his hole.

They're not going to do well outside for long.

Let's see if we can ease him down in there.

There he goes!

He'll slide in, easing down slowly until his head gets flat against the ground-- just like that!

He's not willing to do that for me, but that's where he feels most at home.

Not outside, and not flat against the ground.

That's where he can easily pounce!

Here's the pile of sand right around here from the burrow that he excavated.

Unbelievable animal, really is!

Hope he'll do well there.

Let's follow this little traillike thing and see what's further on.

When you see big trees in a lot like this, you figure they were here when people were here.

That's a tree that's often seen downtown, one of the hackberries, with some fruit on it.

I see a little fruit dangling down.

That probably provided the shade on the lot.

A lot of shrubs in here, more Ligustrum, and also Carolina laurelcherry.

We want to take a closer look at that in a minute.

I think I'm collecting a few riders as I go through.

Beggar's-lice, maybe?

Yeah, and I think some sandspurs, sadly.

One thing I want you to take a look at especially.

This variety of tree is in the rose family.

It's called hawthorn.

Does it have a pretty bloom?

It has pretty, roselike flowers.

The fruit is edible, although I don't see any.

Something looks like a modified thorn!

Those thorns will get your attention very quickly.

It allows a plant to grow in an open place.

If there was a large animal like a deer or cattle here, they wouldn't bother this.

That gives some protection.

That's one way plants protect themselves.

Look on my pants leg.

You got stuck with sandspurs.

(Rudy) Most people think of sandspurs as being associated with the beach.

It's not necessarily so.

These little projections, or spines, on that sandspur protect the seed, as we've said.

I wondered what purpose those things had in life!

That protects that seed from anything eating it.

It also allows it to get stuck in pants and fur on animals and get transferred.

What is it the seed of?

The seed of a grass called sandspurs, because it does have these spur-shaped projections.

When you're in an open field and competing-- You've got to use whatever you've got.

You use all the wiles you've got.

If you can protect yourself with thorns like that tree, or spines like this sandspur, you've got a better chance.

You already mentioned the briers that are here.

That does protect that plant too.

What protection does that little creature have?

Oooh...isn't that interesting?

A mockingbird, sitting on the wire.

Called that because it can sound like a lot of different varieties of birds.

Its protections are those wings and those eyes.

He won't sit there long and hurries on his way.

Interesting animal found statewide, not just in places like this.

They live downtown just like they live in the woods.

What else is in this wilderness?

One big thing I wish I could climb or get underneath... pecan tree.

Coming up, fruit all over.

Full of pecans!

Oh, loaded!

I'm sure every eastern gray squirrel in the neighborhood knows about this tree, and knows about the fact that autumn is the time to come and eat your fill of pecans.

One of the problems that cities have is overpopulation of squirrels.

People call and say, "There's a ghost in my attic!"

It's really a squirrel.

It's little squirrels running around.

[laughing] I've had the experience!

The reason squirrel populations are so high in cities is that we killed the predators that normally feed on them.

Hawks and owls don't do as well in cities as elsewhere.

Snakes...most people don't put up with them.

So squirrel populations are raised.

That's something that does go on in cities.

It's not going on in the woods.

There are other things... so many things jumping out.

Which way?

This is native, the bird is native, and the pecan is scattered around the state.

I see another tree that's not native that I want to look at, the one with big leaves.

I'm going to take us out of the way.

We'll have to go back to that open area.

Here's one of the introduced trees that's really kind of interesting.

Let me break off a leaf.

(Rudy) Feel that leaf.

Oooh, it's fuzzy!

Fuzzy on the bottom, a little rough on top.

The leaf looks like one of the mulberry leaves.

Some are simple... without any lobes.

Some of them have two lobes or three lobes like most of the mulberries.

The fruit looks a little like mulberry.

It's called paper-mulberr, but it's not native at all.

This is a tree that's been brought over from China, Japan... you know, Asia.

Why do you think they would call it paper-mulberry?

Probably because they made paper out of it.

Very fine paper is made in that part of the world from the inner bark of this tree.

I don't know why it was introduced.

Maybe it's just pretty, or it doesn't get too large.

It's something nice with big leaves...it gives you shade, but here it is in South Carolina.

People didn't have anything to do with this-- I mean, that didn't come over by itself.

People were responsible for this being introduced.

Someone told me that every species of animal and plant are found everywhere in the world-- That's a pretty broad maxim!

--unless one of three things has happened.

First...it couldn't get there.

Secondly...after it got there, it couldn't survive.

Or thirdly... after it got there, somehow it was modified into something else.

That's a weird way to look at the world.

We'll think about that one!

One of the three things that's broken down since man arrived on the scene is, it couldn't get there.

Man has transmitted these things, carried these things all over the world, on ships first, and now airplanes, trains, boats, and all kinds of things.

Now it's either survival or modification.

Seems to be that way because man is the great distributor of all sorts of things.

This plant is a good example.

Let's back on out.

There are a few other things this way worth taking a look at in this field.

I hope to get a butterfly.

Can't do a show without a butterfly, can we?

This grass is so common... you know what that is.

I never thought of it as grass, but it is broomsedge, isn't it?

Kind of an interesting plant.

A lot of people use it for the reason the name implies.

To make yard brooms.

And there's a cactus.

Yeah, look at that thing.

You think growing in the wild?

I think so...they get up in the state a good bit, scattered, really, all over the state.

This has fruit on it, which is edible.

People make real good jelly out of that cactus.

Prickly pear preserves.

Prickly pear is the name that you hear most often, but it is in the cactus family.

Does well in open areas like this.

That's why you expect it in a place like this.

There's something I do not expect in a place like this.

That frilly-leafed plant is asparagus!

Is it in the fern family?

No, but it looks like it.

This is the asparagus you grow in gardens to serve on the table.

That's probably a leftover of a garden area associated with the old house here.

That's something that tells us that man has been here.

Here's another...see that little tree over it?

I don't like that tree.

Chinaberry.

Remember from our alien show, we talked about chinaberry trees...I hate the fruit!

I found out the other day that people took the seed inside that fruit and strung it together to form beads.

I never knew that, but people have told me that was one use they put it to.

That's not a native tree.

It's been brought over and escaped a good bit.

There is a tree we might want to look at.

Look at the fruit.

Oh...that's a cigartree!

Indian cigartree.

That's an interesting one... let's tell a few stories.

Why did you call this cigartree?

When I was a kid, we had one in our backyard.

We thought those projections looked like cigars, and we used to smoke them.

Probably not for very long.

You didn't smoke much... they made you sick!

Smoke in your throat and lungs causes irritation.

These are smoked, and Indian cigar is one name we give it.

The fruit is distinctive, I think you can see.

Another name for this is the catawba tree.

In fact, if you know trees, this one is really a Catalpa tree.

That's the way you look it up.

Since we have an Indian tribe in this state-- They associate it-- --called the Catawbas.

--because of the Indian cigars.

Now we've modified the name of this tree to catawba tree.

Anybody who's much of a fisherman-- I'm sure you know people who are pretty good fishermen.

I've never been a good fisherman.

I can't sit still long enough!

They take the caterpillars that are common on this, the catalpa sphinx moth caterpillar, or the catawba worms, as they call them.

Great, great fishing bait.

This tree has been used a lot in South Carolina.

That's one reason you find them around old homesites.

People liked to have their own fishing bait.

[laughing] Or their own cigars!

Or their own cigars, as the case may be.

Indian cigartree, catawba tree, or Catalpa tree, pointing out that common names really are awfully tough to deal with sometimes.

Let's head toward this structure and just see what we might find.

Alrighty.

[no dialogue] Here's a cluster of plants I bet you've dealt with in your life.

Plum trees.

Wild plums...probably weren't here when the house was here, but they get transferred in by animals taking the fruit away.

I see something-- let me get behind you.

(Beryl) What's that?

Look at this, if I can move that leaf.

Do you see that little caterpillar?

You see the white stuff underneath the caterpillar?

What is it?

Those are little cocoons of a parasitic wasp.

Those parasites were inside that caterpillar's body up until just recently... this is a horror story!

It really doesn't sound very nice!

The wasp flies up to the caterpillar, sticks a little ovipositor in, squirts in some eggs.

They're like little time bombs.

The eggs hatch into larvae that feed on the insides of that caterpillar.

You don't eat the nervous system.

The caterpillar has to have a nervous system to survive.

You eat a few muscles, some stored fat, and about this time of year, you burrow through the wall of that caterpillar's body.

Can he live after that?

Not well...that caterpillar will not form a cocoon and make it over winter.

He's doomed to die because he doesn't have enough stored food.

It's been stolen from him.

The parasites then spin silken cocoons.

And they'll make it.

They'll make it to come out and become wasps.

Again, that's one of nature's controls on insect populations.

A very good example of parasite-host relationships.

Very clear.

Let's ease around the side here and get into what's left of a building.

That's not a part of the first house that was here.

Looks like someone started and changed their minds.

Got a butterfly finally... after carrying the net all this time!

Why don't we look at that first and then talk about these trees looking in on us.

Here's one of those butterflies that are yellow like many flowers this time of year.

Let me reach in and get him.

He's called sleepy orange, because on the back there is a lot of orange color.

Why sleepy... he drifts around?

Supposedly they drift around.

When you try to catch these, they don't fly sleepily.

I think they're misnamed, but somebody has beaten me to it.

Notice how the wings are tattered?

He's been out a while.

Doesn't have much longer to live.

On days where you have cool nights and warm days, you expect them to come to places like this that are going to heat up like the concrete blocks.

I doubt he'll stay on my finger.

You can see without looking on top, the wing is edged with black, so the orange and black on top and the yellow underside are pretty distinctive.

Just long enough.

Heading away, probably not much longer to live.

Again, that's found all over the state, downtown, out of town, all over the place.

Okay, what are these trees poking through the almost windows?

Well, this is a variety that is native to South Carolina.

Nowadays you find it most often cultivated, or as an escape from cultivation.

It's called Carolina laurelcherry.

It is one of the cherries.

I was going to ask if it were a laurel.

It looks like laurel because of these stiff leaves that you can see, yet it does have flowers and fruit that resembles cherries, to one degree or another.

You can see it hanging down, quite a few coming out.

This is one of those plants that is very closely related to the Carolinas, hence the name, Carolina laurelcherry.

Comes up nice, usually shrub-size like this, but can get a good deal larger.

In a large city where they've been allowed to grow in a fairly protected place, they really do very well.

Look around this concrete structure, and you see-- look beneath my feet.

Here comes one of those yellow composites we saw earlier.

Plants pushing up all over!

Grasses coming in...phenomenal the way nature can work.

I think we've proven, at least to my satisfaction, and hopefully to the satisfaction of people watching, that even a vacant lot in a large city anywhere in the state can have goodies if you're willing to slow down and look.

Or that left alone, nature does come back and reclaim her own.

Sneaks right back in, and there's no fanfare.

It's slow, takes a little time, but even concrete structures can fall back into the natural world again.

That's nice to know, isn't it?

I guess so!

I bet there are vacant lots near you.

This weekend would be a good time to take a chance and look around.

We're going to take advantage of our opportunity.

We'll see you next time.

Why don't we head into the open area.

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