Steven's Creek Heritage Preserve

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steven's Creek Heritage Preserve is a park which is managed by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. It covers 434 acres in McCormick County and Edgefield County, and was established to protect rare animal and plant species. Webster's salamander and Miccosukee gooseberry are among the species which have few populations outside the preserve. The nearest population center is Clarks Hill, about two road miles to the southwest.

The site was discovered in 1957 by Albert E. Radford of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He noticed exceptional diversity in the tree, shrub and herb layers, and documented six plant species which had been unknown in South Carolina up to that time. Another five species were known from only one other South Carolina location. Many of these rare species were plentiful at the site, and remain prominent there today. A remarkable feature of this plant community is that a palmetto, Sabal minor, occurs near northern inland wildflowers such as Asarum canadense. Four trillium species are also present.

Soils of the preserve were found to be atypical for South Carolina. Most of the state's soils are acidic with pH near or below 5. But some topsoils in the preserve had pH readings near 7 -- neutral on the scale. This is more typical of base-rich sites in Appalachian coves and the Midwest, where many plants rare to South Carolina are abundant.