#marsh periwinkle

Helical Not too long ago, I went out to Cedar Key in search of white pelicans. I had no luck in that department, but I did see plenty of other beautiful birds, including several of our other winter visitors. Although Cedar Key is always a great place to see birds, it’s also a great place to see all sorts of other interesting nature, too. In past trips I’ve found flowers, spiders, butterflies,…

This Interesting, Clever Little Snail Actually Farms it’s Own Food tells readers about the marsh periwinkle, a salt water snail that eats algae, dead leaves, and fungi. It explains how these snails produce their favorite food on the plant stalks.

Marsh Periwinkle Okay, okay so it’s a snail and almost certainly not terribly clever, but still, it’s pretty cool that this snail actually does grow some of it’s own food. We’ll get into that in a little bit, but first I want to give you some background on these snails. They are marsh periwinkles (Littoraria irrorata), and they live exclusively in salt marshes. Salt marshes are a unique type of…