Lowcountry Legend: The story of the blue bottle tree

Photo byExplore Beaufort

One of the many traditions steeped in the South Carolina Lowcountry history is the bottle tree. Over the centuries, the Gullah culture of our sea islands has lent many legends and superstitions to the rest of the Lowcountry and beyond, and the belief in spirits is one of them.

Odds are, you have come across a bottle tree at some time or another in your life. They’re pretty cool. A bunch of blue bottles arranged in an odd formation on the tips of tree branches.

Believed to have originated in the Congo in Africa around the year 900, according to the South Carolina Lowcountry Tourism Commission, the legend is, early African Gullah in America believed that when night rolled around, the bottles lured and trapped evil spirits in them and held them hostage until the rising morning sun could destroy them. The use of blue bottles is to attract the spirits and once they’re in the bottle, they can’t get out. When the wind blows and the bottle hums, you know that there is a spirit trapped inside.

In early days, bottles would be tied to trees near a prominent public location in order to capture any spirits which may be traveling.

In more recent decades this practice has spread throughout the country and has become largely decorative. However, less than a century ago, the act of placing bottles over tree branches or tying them to limbs was a spiritual act rooted in voodoo and witchcraft. Back in the early days, South Carolina Lowcountry Tourism Commission said the bottles would often be tied to trees near a crossroad or even at a prominent public location in order to capture any spirits which may be traveling.

You can see them all over the South today. You can even buy them from local Gullah artists.

There is some slight controversy surrounding the true origin of the bottle tree. Some historians believe that the practice originated the Congo area of Africa sometime in the 9th century , as the Tourism Commission says, and according to Felder Rushing in his Bottle Tree blog, others follow it back as far as 1600 B.C. to the ancient Egyptians.

But historians do agree that bottle trees came to the old south, including the Lowcountry, from Africa along with the slave trade.

Though the superstition has been all but completely lost in recent years, the practice is actually rising in popularity throughout the nation as a popular garden decoration.

But it's not a mere art form here in the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Yes, they do look pretty in the garden. But, they’re more than just another tradition that helps keep the storied cultural past alive and well.

We know what bottle trees are for. They trap evil spirits. And, we don’t need any evil spirits running around.

Right?