South Carolina : Flora Fauna

Other than palmetto (the state tree), the important trees of South Carolina include, beech, pitch pine, balsam fir, cypress, yellow birch, and several types of maple, ash, hickory, and oak; longleaf pine grows mainly south of the fall line. Rocky areas of the piedmont contain a wide mixture of moss and lichens. The coastal plain has a diversity of land formations— savannah, swamp, prairie, marsh, dunes—and, accordingly, a great number of different grasses, shrubs, and vines Twenty plant species were listed as threatened or endangered in 2003, including black spored quillwort, psmooth coneflower, Schweinitz's sunflower, ondberry, and persistent trillium.

South Carolina mammals include white-tailed deer (the state animal), black bear, opossum, gray and red foxes, cottontail and marsh rabbits, mink, and woodchuck. Three varieties of raccoon are indigenous, one of them unique to Hilton Head Island.. Common birds include the mockingbird and Carolina wren (the state bird). Twenty-two animal species were listed as threatened or endangered in South Carolina in 2003, including the Indiana bat, Carolina heelsplitter, bald eagle, five species of sea