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Wildflower Treks - 2023 Southern Nantahala Wilderness Area |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2023) |
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Wildflower Treks - 2023 Southern Nantahala Wilderness Area |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2023) |
| 1 - Late April, 2023 With other destinations to visit, I didn't make my usual early spring treks up to our adjacent spring ephemeral hotspots. I finally got up there for a few hours on the last day of April. I roamed an area that I hadn't really explored before, hoping to come across some yellow lady's slippers, but had no luck with that search. |
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| It seems that my first photo when heading up into this area is often these falls on upper Bell Creek. |
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| Drupes on Eastern Leatherwood (Dirca palustris) I had found and photographed the flowers of this relatively uncommon plant for the first time in early April, 2022. |
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| Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) These often are found with yellow lady's slippers, but no luck today! |
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| Southern Wild Comfrey (Andersonglossum virginianum, formerly Cynoglossum virginianum) |
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| Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) |
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| Vasey's Trillium (Trillium vaseyi) |
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| Spotted Mandarin (Prosartes maculata) This was a new population of this species for me, much closer to our house than others I have come across. |
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| An area of big, mossy boulders... |
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| Flame Azalea (Rhododendron calendulaceum) |
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| Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) |
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| Catesby's Trillium (Trillium catesbaei) |
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| American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolia) When I'm looking for this, it takes me forever to find it. When I'm not looking for it, I see it everywhere! See more examples: |
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| American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolia) |
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| American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolia) |
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| American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolia) |
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| American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolia) |
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| 2 - Early May, 2023 The day after leading a GA BotSoc field trip for the Spring Pilgrimage, I took a short walk through a lower area of the Wilderness Area across from our property. While working my way through a thick shrubby spot by a creek, I saw a brilliant red flash out of the corner of my eye. Turns out it was a beautiful Scarlet Tanager, a bird we rarely see. I already had my camera in hand, but was set-up to shoot some flower closeups, not a distant bird through brush. Well, you have to use the tool you have at hand, not the one you wish you had. I couldn't move for fear of scaring it off, so I slowly raised the camera until I could get a somewhat clear shot through the branches and leaves. It sat on the same branch for a while, but was constantly preening and moving about. It flew down into the creek and splashed around some. I tried to get a better angle but then it saw me and flew off. These images aren't much, shot at full digital zoom and then GREATLY cropped, but you can at least identify the bird. |
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| Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) |
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| Scarlet Tanager |
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| Scarlet Tanager |
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| Scarlet Tanager, splashing in the water |
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| If you find an old U-shaped rock structure in the woods, and it's near a creek, chances are that it's the firebox from an old moonshine still. I had never seen this one before. I had to clear a bunch of poison ivy off it to get a clear view. |
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| Once again, I found Ginseng when I wasn't looking for it... |
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| American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolia) |