Also found in the bottomland areas are post, water, and willow oaks, along with nuttall, cherrybark, and swamp chestnut oaks, birch, water elm, ash, bitter pecan or water hickory, southern magnolia, blue beech or ironwood, hawthornes, red maple, tupelogum, willow and black willow. The tree is noted for its long life and the huge sizes it attains. It was once one of the most plentiful trees along drainages of the Southeast, but its value as a source of rot-resistant wood has caused depletion of many merchantable stands. The Spanish Moss is a flowering, perennial, moss of the pineapple family. The plant, which is native to the Western hemisphere from Argentina to the Southern United States, is the only species of the pineapple family indigenous to the United States.
Spanish moss is rootless, living attached to the trunks and branches of trees.
Spanish Moss was also used for dealing with problems like hunger or starvation. Understory vegetation common to both communities consists of low shrubs and pines and include yaupon, American holly, American beautyberry, arrowwood, blackberries, grapes, greenbriars, dwarf palm, and sumacs. Major food sources for prehistoric peoples included various types of nuts and berries abundant in the hardwood-dominated forest. Acorns and hickory nuts are high in fats and served as important sources of vegetable oil for many southeastern Indian groups and second, during the fall, they would attract deer and turkey, both important prey species for the Indians. Wild fruits and berries, such as blueberries, blackberries, wild grapes, persimmons, plums, and wild cherries served as a source of vitamins and carbohydrates for both prehistoric and historic peoples.