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Miscellaneous Botanical Finds Early Spring 2021 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2021) |
|
Miscellaneous Botanical Finds Early Spring 2021 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2021) |
| A few miscellaneous botanical finds photographed during some explorations in early Spring, 2021. These shorter excursions are in addition to the various wildflower albums found within our website. 1 - Rabun County, GA - March, 2021 Trillium persistens and Monotropsis odorata I went looking for these two uncommon botanical targets - T. persistens (the Persistent Wake-Robin), and M. odorata (Sweet Pinesap). I had photographed both before, but at somewhat distant locations from home. At my first location today, I found plenty of the Trilliums, but no Monotropsis. Heading to an alternate location, I found a nice colony of the Monotropsis, as well as more of the T. persistens. |
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| Persistent Wake-Robin (Trillium persistens) |
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| This Trillium species is known from only a few locations in Georgia and South Carolina. |
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| Trillium persistens was listed as Endangered by the USF&WS in 1978. |
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| Persistent Wake-Robin (Trillium persistens) |
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| Sweet Pinesap (Monotropsis odorata) |
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| This plant doesn't contain chlorophyll; it is a myco-heterotroph, getting its food by parasitism upon fungi rather than photosynthesis. |
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| Sweet Pinesap (Monotropsis odorata) |
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| Some of the plants, like this, were more pinkish than the more common purplish flowers. |
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| Sweet Pinesap (Monotropsis odorata) |
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| 2 - Rabun Co., GA - Late March, 2021 Epigaea repens, etc. I was looking for old homesites and spotted a few wildflowers that I hadn't seen yet this spring: |
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| Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens) |
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| Trailing Arbutus, with the less common pink flowers |
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| Carolina Vetch (Vicia caroliniana) |
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| A bee pollinating Carolina Vetch |
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| A nice Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) |
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| 3 - Towns Co., GA - April, 2021 Hydrastis, Ophioglossum, Orobanche, etc. I visited one of our local Goldenseal sites. Blooms were late this year, so I had to make a return visit, and found some more interesting plants. |
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| Blue Ridge Bittercress (Cardamine flagellifera) This plant has a very narrow range, but seems to be common in our area. |
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| Luna Moth (Actias luna) Since the Goldenseal wasn't up yet, seeing this moth at least made the visit worthwhile! |
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| I returned 10 days later and the Goldenseal was up and blooming |
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| Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) |
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| Violet Wood-sorrel (Oxalis violacea) There were several large patches of this ground cover, but only a couple of buds had opened up. |
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| Violet Wood-sorrel - one of the open flowers |
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| I came across a population of Goldenseal much bigger that the first patch |
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| Flower from the large patch of Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) |
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| Nearby was Southern Adders-tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum) |
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| A nice little colony of this member of the fern family. |
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| Although not rare, Adder's Tongue is not often seen, perhaps due to its small size. This was my first sighting of this species. |
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| One-flowered Cancer Root (Orobanche uniflora) |
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| I first encountered this parasitic plant last year at another location. |
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| While not rare, these plants are not commonly seen. Their appearance is fleeting. |
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| Other names for Orobanche uniflora include One-flowered Broomrape or Naked Broomrape. |
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| Broad-leaved Toothwort, or Two-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine diphylla) |
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| Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) |
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| The Pink Lady's Slippers were just coming into bloom. |