Okefenokee Swamp's Fetterbush will make you stagger and shout!
The story of the Okefenokee's "Fetterbush"...
Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 45350400 - Fetterbush Lyonia (Lyonia lucida; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 11, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com
In the spring, the Okefenokee Swamp shrubbery is decorated with delicate rows of tiny, pinkish-white bells. These small flowers are of the Lyonia lucida bush. Although they look and smell like a sweet Valentine’s Day treat, they haven’t always been thought of so fondly, as revealed by a few of their common names: fetterbush, staggerbush and hurrah bush.
Fetterbush grows thickly and is often entangled with other shrubs and vines, such as the well-armed greenbrier. Being so thick, it fetters the legs of anyone attempting cross the swamp on foot. Fetters were prisoners’ iron shackles in a less politically correct age. In fact, when his weakness was exploited, the Biblical strongman Samson was “bound in fetters of brass to grind in the prison house.” Lyonia’s other common name, Hurrah bush, comes from the exclamatory shout for joy made by the swamp adventurer that finally makes it through the thickets and staggers into a clearing.
Sources:
-https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/lyonia-lucida/
-Schoettle, Taylor. A Naturalist’s Guide to the Okefenokee Swamp. Darien, Sea to Sea Printing and Publishing, 2019.