Scuppernong Scuppernong River in North Carolina mainly along the coastal plain. It was first mentioned as a "white grape" in a written logbook by the Florentine explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano while exploring the Cape Fear River Valley in 1524. He wrote "...Many vines growing naturally there...". Sir Walter Raleigh's explorers, the captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, wrote in 1584 that North Carolina's coast was "...so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them...in all the world, the like abundance is not to be found." He may have been referring to Sargasso seaweed from coral
Pettigrew State Park Scuppernong River provides a habitat for swamp dogwood, evening primrose, blue flag iris and cardinal flowers. The roughleaf dogwood is also found near the river. This particular dogwood is rare in North Carolina and the type along the Scuppernong is rarer still. Lake Phelps and the Scuppernong River attract a wide variety of waterfowl. Lake Phelps is just one of several large, shallow freshwater lakes on the Pamlico-Albemarle Peninsula. These lakes are all winter grounds for ducks, geese and swans. The waterfowl at Lake Phelps use the area primarily for roosting purpose before flying off to nearby feeding sites. Tundra