Beaufort, South Carolina – Bay Street Live Oak

Robin Seabury of Goose Creek took this photo of a live oak in downtown Beaufort in May 2008.

She writes: "While driving down the main street of Beaufort, I saw this fabulous live oak with the Spanish moss hanging so beautifully. This is so 'Old South' to me and it brings back some of my fantasies of being a little girl playing under this fabulous tree."

Spanish moss, a common sight in South Carolina, is an epiphyte which pulls nutrients from the air and rainfall. Often seen hanging over the limbs of live oaks, it is a flowering plant, and not a moss or a lichen, as its name would imply.