Saving the spider lilies

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By Daniel Larlham Jr.

Knee-deep in a swift river isn’t where most people picture harvesting seeds. But for the rare Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies, it’s the only place you can find them — hidden in the current and tucked low in the water.

Some river rocks betray you, slick, sharp, and often bigger than they appear. On a hot day last month, I joined dedicated volunteers for a full day of paddling, picking, hiking and planting, underscoring the importance of restoring the Catawba River.

“Whoops, uh-oh!” I muttered as I slipped in the rushing waters to assist in the effort.

Stretching over 200 miles through the Carolinas, the Catawba River is a hub for recreation. But for six weeks each year, a short section at Landsford Canal State Park swells with hikers and kayakers drawn to the rare Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies. Native to Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, the Landsford population — just an hour south of Charlotte — is the world’s largest stand of these enchanting perennials.

Aptly named for clinging to the rocky shoals of rivers and streams, the plants require the oxygen provided by a swift, shallow current and lots of sunlight. Just downstream from Landsford Canal State Park, the Great Falls of Catawba would be an ideal place for another population of lilies.

But the seeds of the rocky shoals spider lilies are, for lack of a better term, trapped. About 20 minutes down the river, the dam at Fishing Creek Lake makes it impossible for the plants to travel down to the falls.

For something like 100 years, this mile-and-a-half stretch of rocky shoal at Great Falls was mostly bone dry due to the dam. The prehistoric scale of the many large rocks and dried riverbeds gave it a quality akin to the moon’s arid surface.

That changed only a few years ago, when Duke Energy established minimum flows in the area as a result of a water relicensing agreement.

Seeing an opportunity for restoration, Catawba Riverkeeper, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and advocating for the protection of the entire Catawba-Wateree River basin, soon began its propagation project.

It’s an attempt to return the Great Falls to its original form, explained Southern Basin watershed manager Rachael Rosenstein.

“If the dam wasn’t there, there would be lilies, but we can bypass the dam manually, and so that’s kind of where this project idea came from,” Rosenstein said.

The habitat that Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies create, Rosenstein added, is highly conducive to various macroinvertebrates that eventually turn into mayflies and dragonflies. Minnows and other small fish, on the other hand, use the plant’s roots as a home. So goes the cycle of life, as those bugs and minnows provide a food source for the Catawba’s fish and bird populations, all contributing to the overall health of the river.

2023 was their test-run of the project, bringing just 500 of the seeds down river to see what they would do. Last year, Catawba Riverkeeper harvested roughly 3,000 seeds and planted them in the water at Great Falls.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Helene came through only a few months after they were planted, destroying the majority of that progress.

“It’s possible that they found somewhere else downstream to hang on,” said Rosenstein. “It can be hard to get to all the places.”

The best day to see the Catawba River by way of Landsford Canal State Park is obviously during the peak of the bloom season, from May through mid-June. The second-best time, says Riverkeeper Brandon Jones, is about a month after, on the days they go out to harvest the seeds.

July 15 was the second of three days when the organization took the river for the seeds. A group of about 20, a mix of Riverkeeper staff and volunteers, set out at around 9:30 a.m. on kayaks, a canoe and an inflatable raft.

Seeds of the Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies can be hard to find, hiding within the rocks or being dragged by the river’s current

Traveling down the river in caravan — occasionally getting stuck in the Catawba’s many rocks — we quickly arrived among the lilies, their flowers now few and far between.

It was here that most exited their vessels, instead opting to wade around the water in search of the green-colored, half-dollar-sized seeds. Often, at the base of the spider lilies or lower, the seeds can be tricky to spot.

The depth of water varies. Sometimes it’s ankle-deep, other times it’s up to your waist. Occasionally, the transition between depths is so quick that you double over and you’re suddenly neck-deep in the river.

Of the faunal finds of the group, someone spotted an osprey soaring overhead and the likely molt of a wolf spider, which brought a small tingle to the back of my neck thinking about how big the thing must be now. Of my own observations, a great many number of dragonflies buzzed around the Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies, and, if I was still enough, I could find the smallest fish around the rocks.

Each person was asked to keep track of the seeds they plucked as best they could and try and harvest 130 seeds so that Riverkeeper could keep track of the count. Only mature seeds, ones that came off their stem with a soft pull, were to be taken.

The Riverkeeper’s goal for this year was to propagate 5,000 seeds at Great Falls over the three days in July, less than 1% of the over 500,000 seeds that show up at Landsford each year.

Rosenstein said that seeing half of the seeds fully grown would be a major success for the team.

It takes three years for the plants to produce a flower, which produces the seeds that allow the plants to propagate themselves along the shoals. The ultimate goal is to create a self-sustaining population of the spider lilies at Great Falls, but the team won’t be able to see their efforts realized until at least 2028.

Once they do have a self-sustaining population, Rosenstein says, they’ll likely continue propagating the plant further down the river.

Around 11 a.m., the group headed back to shore, loading boats and buckets of seeds and river water into trucks. Volunteers hiked to the parking lot while others secured the boats for the next leg.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived below Fishing Creek Reservoir, eating lunch en route, then parked on Cedar Creek Road. Before hiking to Great Falls, they pulled out trash bags and gloves to collect bottles, cans and other litter along the roadside.

The 20-minute hike down to Great Falls required some finesse and footwork around large boulders, smaller unsteady rocks and pools of still water only made more difficult by the 5-gallon buckets filled with seeds.

Jones said that last year’s hurricane, which swept away most of the seeds they had planted that year, did do the favor of clearing out Great Falls from a lot of the detritus and dead vegetation that had accumulated from its years of dryness.

It was time to start planting.

The group set up on a large rock in the middle of the falls. In order to allow the seeds to grow, seeds were wedged into rock crevasses in the flowing water but not too deep so as they suffocate.

Everyone took a bag or two bags of seeds and jumped in, spread thin through the falls in search of suitable wedge spots.

The planting part of the day seemed to have moved quicker than the collecting part. It took about an hour and a half before the group began to congregate back at the rock.

By the time we left Great Falls, our empty seed bags were a quiet testament to our work.

My arms and legs were nicked and sore, my clothes heavy with river water — but the thought of those seeds taking root in the current made every slip and scrape worth it. The Catawba would carry them forward, and maybe, one day, someone else would wade in to find them blooming.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a freelance writer. He can be reached at [email protected]

Today’s supporting sponsor is Carnegie Private Wealth. At Carnegie Private Wealth, we bring clarity to complexity. Through thoughtful planning and personal attention, we transform your financial aspirations into actionable strategies. Providing you with less stress and greater confidence in your future.

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