Fetterbush Traditional Cache

Fetterbush. If you park at the first parking area and walk towards the Environmental center, you'll soon find an entrance to a trail around the bushes on your left. Take this trail to the right and you'll end up at the cache. BYOP.

Fetterbush

Lyonia lucida is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names fetterbush lyonia, hurrahbush, and staggerbush. Other plants may be called fetterbush. This plant grows on the coastal plain of the southeastern United States from Virginia to Florida to Louisiana. It also occurs in Cuba.

This shrub can grow to 4 to 5 meters in height and just as wide. The plant has long rhizomes that can sprout up new plants, forming a colony. The leathery leaves are alternately arranged on scaly twigs. They are up to 10.5 centimeters long by 5.5 wide and are oval in shape. The inflorescence is a fascicle of cylindrical flowers which are usually pink but may be white or red. The fruit is a capsule.

The plant mostly reproduces vegetatively, but it also reproduces by seed. In soils poor in nutrients it does not flower and reproduces only by sprouting from the rhizome.

This plant is a common species, growing in shrubby bogs, wet savannas, conifer swamps, and scrub. There are large populations in saw palmetto prairie habitat. It is common in the Okefenokee Swamp. It grows in dry habitat but it is usually found in wet places, including habitat that is periodically flooded. It prefers acidic, saturated soils rich in organic matter, such as those in cypress swamps. It may grow in shady understories but it does well in full sun.

Our first impression of fetterbush: What a strange name. But it comes with a logical explanation: its sprawling habit and large patches that "fetter," or hinder, both humans and animals trying to move through it. Similar logic as staggerbush. Its scientific name is lyonia lucida, honoring the 18th and 19th century Scottish gardener John Lyons. Lucida refers to the plants shiny leafs.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, "small" pill bottle that you have to push hard to open and close. It holds only a rolled log with a rubber band in a tiny plastic zip lock bag. Please BYOP and be careful with the vegetation.