Move back from the coast a little and they stand taller and straighter, pines begin to dominate, and the understory now includes new wonders, magnolias of several species and the gordonia, which looks like it ought to be a magnolia but isn't. The early spring woods delights the senses for several reasons, not the least of which is that it is still a little cool for the snakes and biting insects, and the air is sometimes saturated with the sweet honey scent of honeysuckle or the spicy scent of dwarf azalea. The columbine was a complete surprise - bright red with yellow cone shaped inner flower. Jack in the pulpit and pitcher plants are spectacular, and you will almost certainly want to take a grass stem and tickle the inner surface of the open Venus flytrap leaf just to watch it snap shut. Once in a while a large area will be carpeted with broad green leaves, and if you look under the leaves there is the happy discovery of a large white flower in the junction of the stem, a mayapple.
Creek banks are lined with clumps of violets.
And the diversity is much greater than I had imagined. The coastal margin is a narrow zone that includes the shore environment, the salt marsh and low areas of wetlands. The flower at the bottom is a horsemint, very common in roadside areas up and down the NC coastal areas.