Trail Guide

Welcome to the Greenville Cypress Preserve! You are encouraged to take a “break” from your busy lives and experience a walk in nature into this century old bald cypress “brake.” This Trail Guide will take you on a self-guided tour to help you learn more about this incredible preserve. Twenty-two stations along the trail correspond to the numbers in the guide. Please read each sign first, then read or listen to the information in the guide. Stay on the trails so as not to disturb the nature around you. The trail is open from dawn to dusk.

 This tour takes you along the outer perimeter of the preserve on the one-half mile long Cypress Trail.  A map of the preserve can be found along the trail after sign number four as well as on this website greenvillecypresspreserve.org or you may use the QR code posted under the pavilion.

Enjoy your visit!

This preserve gives you a picture of what the Mississippi Delta originally looked like.  It was a jungle of swamps filled with bald cypress trees, knees, and canebrakes. During the 20^th century, roughly 90 percent of the ancient bald cypress trees in the southern United States were cut down due to extensive logging practices that targeted these trees for their valuable timber. This caused the once vast cypress brakes to almost disappear.

 In the late 1930s this sixteen-acre tract of land was in danger of destruction by encroaching urban development. In 1940 a foresighted group of Greenville Garden Club ladies wanted to preserve this land, so they used funds from their Spring Garden Festival and donations from other sources to purchase the preserve for $3,176.00.  The club maintained the Cypress Preserve from 1940 until 2002 when it conveyed a conservation easement to the Greenville Cypress Preserve Trust.  The trust obtained a 501 (c) (3) tax exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service.  

 The Greenville Garden Club remains dedicated to keeping the preserve as natural as possible and considers it to be a gift to our community and to out-of-town visitors. It is maintained by Greenville Garden Club dues, donations and grants.

As you look out over the preserve, you will see a natural garden of native trees, plants, and wildflowers.  Flowering plants that grow in the wild or on their own without cultivation are called wildflowers.  Wildflowers indigenous to the area are called natives.  Others, which may be quite common but not indigenous, have been introduced from another part of the world.  They are referred to as naturalized.  Both types can reproduce and survive unaided in nature.

Around the pavilion visitors are welcomed each spring, summer and fall by a burst of colorful native wildflowers that have been planted from seeds by Greenville Garden Club members.  Walking through the woodlands and sloughs you will see others.  Look at sign Number 3 and see how many wildflowers you can identify during your visit. You may also want to refer to our Native Plant Guide found on this website.  Photos of native plants have been arranged seasonally according to bloom time for easy identification.

As you learn more about these native plants, you will soon be “wild” about wildflowers.

Please go to sign number 4 on your right as you exit the pavilion.

The preserve offers a unique experience to pass through three ecosystems in an urban setting.  You will walk through a meadow, wetlands and a woodland area as you view three sloughs.

 The preserve gives visitors the chance to see wildlife in its natural habitat. The animals are sometimes hard to find but your chances of spotting them will greatly increase if you:

• are as quiet as possible
• walk slowly
• watch and listen for movement
• stand or sit still for a few minutes
• take time to look at ordinary things

and don’t forget your binoculars and bug spray!

Turn to the right onto the Meadow Trail and continue toward the boardwalk over the slough. As you tour the preserve, please stay on the trails.

As you approach the boardwalk, notice wetland plants growing in the water or near the water’s edge. Pause and look around at the majesty of the stately bald cypress trees. You may see a graceful white egret enjoying the preserve, and you may hear delightful sounds of birds, bullfrogs and locusts.  You will just have to whisper, “Wow!”

 Many visitors ask if the conical projections in the swamp are “baby cypress trees!” The answer is “no” they are growths off the roots of the tree. These knees are believed to help stabilize the tree in soft wet or muddy soils although there is some scientific conjecture that suggests the knees also help in the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide for the constantly submerged roots.

 In answer to the question posed on the sign, the preserve is a forested swamp.  It is a wetland dominated by woody plants and characterized by saturated soil during the growing season and standing water during certain times of the year.  The water level of the preserve depends on the level of the Mississippi River and the amount of rainfall.  At times the swamp is almost dry and at other times water may cover the boardwalks.

 Due to the rich soils present in swamps, many of these fertile woodlands have been drained and cleared for agriculture and other development.  Over 70 percent of the nation’s floodplain forested swamps has been lost.  The Greenville Cypress Preserve Trust is dedicated to the preservation and conservation of this true wetland. 

When conditions are right in the spring and summer, the sloughs may be covered with “green stuff” which is a floating green aquatic plant called duckweed.  It has tiny leaf-like bodies with no stems or leaves, but it does have a root system that hangs vertically in the water. In the fall, this interesting little plant goes dormant and sinks to the bottom of the swamp. Then in the spring it produces a tiny bubble of gas which causes it to float back to the surface.

 Other interesting facts about duckweed include:

• It can be very aggressive and can double its mass in size every two to three days.
• It is among the smallest flowering plants in the world.
• Japanese secret spies, Ninjas, used to swim under blankets of duckweed to conceal their movements.

Besides being an important high protein food source for ducks, geese, snails, turtles and beavers, duckweed also serves as shelter and shade for bullfrogs, snakes, and fish.

In the fall and winter, you may see “red stuff” on the surface of the water called mosquito fern which may have gotten its name from the myth that mosquitoes cannot penetrate the dense mass of fronds to lay their eggs.  Mosquito ferns are rich in proteins, essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.  It is easy to cultivate and therefore is grown in many parts of the world.  When used as a supplement in livestock feed, reports indicate increased production of milk from dairy cows and eggs from ducks and chickens. 

The native plants all around you have evolved over thousands of years. Many of these Mississippi native plants are wise choices for personal gardens because they are better adapted to the Delta soil and climate, provide food and shelter for our wildlife, and require less maintenance than exotic species.

 How many of the plants pictured on the sign can you find in the woods? While you are searching for them you may enjoy a few facts:

• The sweet gum is easily recognized by its star shaped leaves and woody, spiny ball shaped fruit. Pioneers once peeled the bark and scraped the resin-like solid to produce chewing gum.
• The seeds and young shoots of the red buckeye are poisonous if ingested, and American Indians crushed these parts and put them in water to stupefy fish for easy capture.
• The bark of the sugarberry also known as a hackberry with its wart-like bumps makes it easy to identify. Its berries secrete a sweet sticky substance in the fall that attracts millions of mealy bugs. The mealy bugs engorge themselves with the secretions and produce a dew of saccharine sweetness known as ghost rain or honeydew.
• All parts of the sassafras tree are very fragrant, and the bark on young trees is bright green.  It is unusual because it has three distinct leaf patterns on the same plant: oval, mitten-shaped and three lobed. Several are located by the entrance to the Bob Gramling Observation Deck.
• Did you know that the leaves of the beautyberry were used as a mosquito repellent by American Indians? The leaves, when rubbed onto the skin safely and effectively repel mosquitoes, fleas, ticks and other annoying and biting insects.
• In the fall of the year, try to find a boxelder maple tree (one is located near sign number 11). When the flat pear-shaped fruit dries, it will fall to the ground. Pick one up, hold it high over your head and let it fall…it will spin like a helicopter!

Continue on Trail

Bird watching is a popular hobby in North America. Fortunately, the preserve is on the Mississippi Flyway which is a bird migration route that runs through North America following the Mississippi, Missouri and Lower Ohio Rivers.  Just twenty miles from the preserve at Leroy Percy State Park and Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge more bird species were identified in 1993 during a National Audubon Society’s Washington County Christmas Bird Count than at any other inland location in North America according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This sign pictures many water, migratory and local birds commonly seen in the preserve.  How many can you find?

• The great egret has all white plumage and may be best known as the symbol of the National Audubon Society. It feeds in shallow water on fish, frogs, small mammals, small birds and reptiles and spears its prey with its long, sharp bill.  Great egrets can live 20 years or more.
• The Mississippi Kite is a small bird of prey named because their long, pointed wings and forked tails resemble a kite. Their call is a high-pitched squeak, similar to noise made by a squeaky toy. A steel sculpture of a Mississippi Kite created by local artist Lauren Bostic is mounted on a tree on the first boardwalk in loving memory of Greenville Garden Club member Leila Clark Wynn.
• The northern mockingbird is the only mockingbird commonly found in North America.  It is the Mississippi’s state bird and can imitate (or mock) other birds and animal sounds as well as mechanical sounds such as car alarms.

The preserve offers a variety of habitats for many plants and animals.  Naturalists, birders, and hunters are drawn to stands of bald cypress for the habitat which supports songbirds, wild turkeys, wood ducks and other waterfowl.  The canopy overhead provides nesting areas for herons and egrets, as well as hawks, Mississippi kites, eagles, and osprey.  The buttresses of the cypress tree and the “knees” host populations of tree frogs, salamanders and other amphibians, while the murky waters below provide habitat for fish and reptiles. Besides these natural habitats, wood duck and Eastern Bluebird boxes have been added to the preserve to provide a manmade alternative. 

Native plants and wildlife go hand in hand.  Many plants and animals have evolved together and are dependent upon one another for survival.  Plants provide animals with food, nesting sites, cover, and protection from the elements.  While on their quest for food or shelter, animals and insects oftentimes aid in the pollination of flowers and the dispersal of their seeds. 

The berries, nuts and minnows pictured on the sign provide some of the food sources for local animals living in the preserve.  A raccoon, for one, will eat all of those.  In fact, he will eat just about anything!  Rabbits love living in the preserve because it provides them with plentiful plants, bark, and berries to eat. Since they require up to four hours of exercise daily and can run 35 miles an hour, they have plenty of space to hop through the preserve.  And, yes, they love calling the briar patch home! From this sign look across the slough and often you will see turtles sunbathing on a log.  These are Red Eared Sliders, Mississippi’s State Turtle.  They obtained their name due to a small red stripe around their ears, or where their ears would be if they had external ears, and from their ability to slide quickly off logs into the water.

Continue on the trail.

The observation deck was completed in 2010 in loving memory of Bob Gramling, one of the original members of the Cypress Preserve Trust.  He was the designer of the trails and obtained several grants which financed them.

 From the deck you can see the tallest bald cypress tree in the preserve.  As you enter the deck, look to your right, and you will see what appears to be a tree with a double trunk but is actually two trees growing very close together.  The tallest tree is the one to the right.  It is over 128 feet tall and is estimated to be 125 years old.

Many visitors ask if there are alligators and fish in our swamps.  The answer is “no” because the preserve does not maintain a constant water level. 

Leave the deck and turn to your right.

Tracking animals is the art of using clues in an environment to discover and identify which animals are present in the habitat.  Even if you do not see any today, you may find signs of them.  Look for animal tracks in mud, soft soil, or snow near the water’s edge. If you see any tracks, refer to the sign and see if you can identify the animal by its footprint since shape, size, and track patterns will be unique for each animal. 

Look for animal droppings, also called scat or poop.  If you see scat that is still slightly moist it means that the animal was in the area recently.  Bent grasses, pieces of fur or feathers on the ground or stuck to trees, nibbled buds of trees and empty acorn shells are other signs to note.  

While you are looking down, look for crawfish chimneys like the one pictured on the sign.  Everywhere you see a chimney there is a crawfish living in a burrow underneath.  Their tunnels may extend down into the earth three feet or more and are normally full of water. Are you wondering how crawfish can breathe submerged in water?  They have gills like fish and get their oxygen from the water.

Have you guessed who lives in the hole in the tree pictured on the sign?  If you guessed a woodpecker, then you are correct.  However, many other birds and mammals will compete with the woodpecker for the nest.  Woodpeckers tap about 20 pecks per second, about 8,000 to 12,000 times per day and may take as long as a month to peck out a nest.

Dead trees provide vital habitats for more than 1,000 species of wildlife across the nation.  Dead trees, which are often broken and upright, are called snags. They provide homes for mammals such as squirrels, deer mice, raccoons, and bats by providing food, shelter, and nesting places.  Butterflies, amphibians, and reptiles are fond of dead trees as well.  Over 85 species of birds including wood ducks and owls also nest in this upright habitat. Do you see a snag in this area?

 When a snag eventually falls over, it may provide dens for larger mammals such as foxes, bobcats, skunks, and opossums.  Take a moment to look around the area.  How many dead trees can you count?  How many different lichens, mosses or mushrooms that cover many of the fallen trees can you see? Look even closer to find insects, beetles and other living creatures that make a home in these decaying logs.

Can you find a tree that once had a vine wrapped around it that changed its shape?

Continue to the next boardwalk.

Male wood ducks, called drakes, are considered among the most beautiful waterfowl in North America because they wear a rainbow of colors!  The female hen on the other hand is mostly brown.  Note their picture on the sign especially look at their clawed toes which enable them to cling to branches in nesting trees.

Female wood ducks lay their eggs in a tree cavity or nest box and will return to the same nest year after year. They usually lay one egg a day with a normal clutch size of 6 to 16 eggs. About 24 hours after the eggs hatch, the mother wood ducks call to their young and beckon them down to the water or soft soil where they may be safer from predators.  The ducklings use the sharp claws and hooked nail at the tip of their bill to climb up to the hole out of the tree or box to jump to their mother. They can jump from very high nesting sites (as high as 65 feet) without injury.  Ducklings can swim and find food, which consists of small invertebrates and small fish.  As they get older, they begin to eat berries, seeds and insects.                                                     

The “tree duck” population was in serious decline in the late 19^th century because of severe habitat loss and market hunting, both for the meat and the plumage for the ladies’ hat market in Europe.  By ending unregulated hunting and taking measures to protect remaining habitats, wood duck populations began to rebound in the 1920s.  In the 1930s, the development of artificial nesting boxes, such as the one you can see near this sign, gave an additional boost to the wood duck population.

After you cross the boardwalk, turn to your right and see the blue bird box with number 14 on it. 

Note: There is no sign for this station.

The bluebird box with the number 14 on it is one of several that have been placed throughout the preserve hoping to attract the Eastern bluebird. The population of this beautiful bird declined seriously enough in the past century to reach critical status by the mid-1900s.  The decline was due to habitat destruction and overharvesting by hunters.  The species was rescued by a network of birding enthusiasts throughout the United States who erected nesting boxes for them.

Adult males are bright blue on top and have a reddish-brown throat and breast.  Bluebirds prefer living on the edge of a forest and nest four to five feet off the ground.  The hole in the nesting box must be no larger than an inch and a half in diameter to prevent starlings, cowbirds, and house sparrows from entering and eating their young.

The wood duck boxes throughout the preserve are much larger than the bluebird boxes.  Overall box size, diameter of the hole, height from the ground and placement in the habitat determine which species of bird will or will not nest there.

Exotic plants, also called non-native or non-indigenous, have been introduced to an environment in which they did not evolve but are able to reproduce and spread in their new home. They can be any type of plant: a tree, vine, shrub, or grass.  Almost 20 percent of the plant species in Mississippi forests, parks, refuges, and other open spaces are not native to our state. 

Once established, many exotics crowd out native plants and animals, alter ecosystems, threaten endangered native species, cause disease, and interfere with human activities including agriculture, industry, and recreation.  These plants are known as exotic invasives.  Billions of dollars are spent worldwide each year to fight the spread of exotic invasive plants in both agricultural land and natural areas.

Look across the area in front of you to the edge of the neighboring property, and you will see a tall bamboo thicket which has replaced the native plants that once grew there. This dense growth of cane is indicative of canebrakes that originally grew in the Mississippi Delta.

You may also find other exotic invasive plants in the preserve that are not on the sign. 

• The Chinese tallow tree has beautiful red and orange fall color, but its small white popcorn ball fruit germinates and readily takes over wetlands.
• The Chinese wisteria vine has beautiful clusters of fragrant purple spring flowers but can quickly destroy native habitats with its rapid growth.
• Japanese euonymus vine produces attractive red berries in the fall that are eagerly eaten and spread by birds.  However, the vine forms a thick ground cover that smothers trees and shrubs.

Please note the Flood Marker near sign number 16. The colored lines on the marker correspond to the flood levels mentioned on the sign. 

The Mississippi River flood of 1927 was the most destructive in the history of the United States and the greatest disaster ever to hit the Mississippi Delta. Heavy rains pounded the upper United States in the summer of 1926 causing the tributaries that feed the Mississippi River to fill to near capacity.  On April 21, 1927, the Mississippi River, swollen by recent rains and engorged tributaries, burst through the levee at Mounds Landing north of Greenville.  In Mississippi alone, an area 50 miles wide and more than 100 miles long was flooded with water reaching a depth of up to 30 feet in some areas.

In April and May 2011, Greenvillians again watched anxiously as the Mississippi River rose daily. On May 17, 2011, the river level crested just below the 1927 level.  Fortunately, the much higher, stronger levee kept the land side of Greenville dry as it did in other high-water years – 1937, 1973 and 2008.  Structures on the waterside of the levee, however, were submerged under more than 20 feet of water.  Sign number 16 shows the five highest maximum river levels in relation to the current 35-foot levee and the preserve’s south GPS marker.

While the devastation that occurred in 1927 will always be remembered, we often forget that before the levees were built, excessive spring rains and melting snow would often fill the Mississippi River past capacity and cause frequent flooding.  These spring floods would bring nutrient rich sediment and water across the flood plain we call the Delta.

Note: There is no sign for this station.

Before you get to the three benches, look to your right, and find number 17 near a large bald cypress tree.  You are looking at the current “Greenville Cypress Preserve Champion Bald Cypress Tree.”  In the east slough by the observation deck, you saw the tallest bald cypress tree in the preserve.  However, the tallest tree may not necessarily be the area’s “champion” tree. A champion tree earns its designation by using an index based on the height, circumference and crown spread of the tree.  The index is calculated as one point for each inch of circumference, one point for each foot of height, and 0.25 of a point for each foot of crown spread. The preserve’s champion tree has a circumference of 17.7 feet (at 4.5 feet above ground line), is 98 feet tall, and has an average crown spread of 59.4 feet giving it an index value of 325.25.

Note: There is no sign for this station.

On your left you will notice three benches with the number 18 on one of them. Please have a seat and read or listen to their story.  The cypress benches that you see throughout the preserve were originally made from an 85-year-old bald cypress tree that fell here during a storm in May of 2009.  The seats were crafted from the trunk of the huge tree and the “legs” were made from the trunks of cypress trees obtained from a mill in Arkansas. As you walk closer to Cypress Lane you can see the remains of the tree that “gave” us the benches.

Cypress wood is durable and resistant to rot and water, making it a good choice for heavy construction and building.  It is an ideal choice for docks, beams, decks, flooring, paneling, and siding.  The ancient Egyptians used cypress to produce the pharaohs’ caskets, and in the Middle Ages, craftsmen used it to carve enormous cathedral doors. Cypress wood is a softwood that is often grouped and manufactured with hardwoods.

Without the natural cycles of destruction and regrowth that occur in nature, the creation of these benches would not have been possible.

As you look out over the slough in front of you, you are looking at the home of many kinds of plants and animals.  In fact, you can find more animals and plants per acre in a wetland than in any other kind of habitat.

With so many species of plants and animals, there must be enough food for them to eat.  Read about the Food Web on the sign, and you will see how it all works.  The dead plants break down, providing food for the insects, shellfish, and small fish which in turn feed larger fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals.

• The aquatic turtles, red-eared sliders, are very strong swimmers and will most likely be seen basking on logs above the water. Perhaps you saw some in the east slough basking in the sun. They get their name from the red stripe that is present on either side of their head. These turtles are the most popular pet turtles in the United States. Many pet owners when they tire of their pet turtles have released them into the wild and now, they have multiplied and are considered one of the world’s most invasive turtles!
• The preserve is home to many snakes such as water moccasins, garter snakes and mud snakes. If you encounter a snake, just leave it alone and give it space so it can escape on its own. You may rest easy because no one has reported being bitten while visiting the preserve! The non-venomous mud snakes have a beautiful red and black checkerboard pattern but are seldom seen because of their secretive habits.
• The American mink with his slightly webbed feet and waterproof coat spends a lot of his time hunting food in the water but also eats rabbits, mice, snakes and birds. Sadly, it takes about fifty of these creatures to make one fur coat.

Even though most cone-bearing conifers are evergreen the bald cypress is deciduous meaning it drops its needle-like leaves in the fall earning the name “bald.” Each autumn its leaves turn golden brown and are shed, along with most of the smaller twigs.  It is native to the southeastern United States and can reach 100 to 150 feet in height.  

Bald cypress trees are monoecious which simply means that they can produce separate male and female flowers (or cones) on the same tree.  Both types of flower buds appear on the tree beginning in early fall and mature in mid-spring. The male flowers (staminate) are slender purple tassels that hang downward.  Female cones appear near the end of the twigs on the previous year’s growth. 

Beginning in March, the male flowers release an abundant supply of yellow pollen into the air, pollinating the nearby female cones.  The cones continue to grow and the seeds within ripen throughout the summer, while the strands of male flowers turn brown and often fall from the tree.  In October the mature cones change from green to brownish purple before dropping from the tree.  Can you determine which stage the reproductive cycle is in now?

When a cone falls into the swamp, the murky water breaks down the tough exterior and the seeds are released.  The seeds can then be eaten by squirrels, wild turkeys, and wood ducks. In the early 1900s, the Carolina Parakeet, a colorful dove-sized bird with a hooked bill strong enough to open the cones, helped disperse the seed. These beautiful parakeets became extinct due to farmers protecting their crops and individuals killing the birds for feathers to adorn ladies’ hats.

Most land areas on earth have some form of water below them. Some rocks of the upper part of the earth’s crust contain many small holes or pores. When these holes are large or are joined together so that water can flow through them easily, the rock is permeable. Sandstone and gravel are examples of permeable rock.

A large body of permeable rock in which water is stored and flows through is called an aquifer. Water from within the aquifer moves slowly toward lower lying places and eventually is discharged to springs, seeps into streams or is withdrawn from the ground by wells.  Wells drilled into aquifers provide about 60 percent of American drinking water and are also a source of water for agricultural use.

You may notice that the water level at the Cypress Preserve is always changing.  When the topsoil in an area becomes saturated with rainwater, the low-lying regions such as the sloughs in the preserve fill with the excess water.  When the Mississippi River is high for extended periods of time, seepage from the river also saturates the nearby topsoil layer which in turn causes the sloughs to fill with water.

Holt Collier was born in 1846 into a family of slaves serving on a plantation near Natchez.  At an early age, Collier moved with his family up the Mississippi River to Plum Ridge Plantation in Washington County, Mississippi about a mile east of the Greenville Cypress Preserve. Collier became proficient in riding horses, marksmanship and hunting all types of wildlife, particularly the black bear.  At the age of ten, while hunting with General Howell Hinds, Collier killed his first bear very close to the preserve.

Following the Civil War, and after emancipation, Collier remained with the Hinds family on Plum Ridge Plantation. He established his reputation as a skillful hunter and black bear hunting guide in the Mississippi Delta.  In 1902, Collier was hired to guide a hunting party with President Theodore Roosevelt, and he tethered a bear to a tree for the President who refused to shoot it. Cartoonists later popularized the event, from whence came the toy known as the “Teddy Bear.”

Holt Collier died in 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi and was buried in Live Oak Cemetery.  He is known throughout the Mississippi Delta and the state of Mississippi as the greatest bear hunter of all time!

You have completed the self-guided tour. We hope it has been educational and inspirational.

Please be so kind to report wildlife sightings to:
Sightings@greenvillecypresspreserve.org

Also, always help keep the preserve clean!

If you would like to donate to the preserve you may send your donation to:

Greenville Cypress Preserve
P.O. Box 4243
Greenville, MS  38704

CREDITS
Authors of Trail Guide: Lynn Cox & Lynn Libous Bailey
Webmaster: Becky Wineman
Web Designer: Bo Pentecost (Solve)