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Cherry Cove & Big Spring Ridge Including "Lady's Slipper Central" Southern Nantahala Wilderness - late April 2025 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2025) |
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Cherry Cove & Big Spring Ridge Including "Lady's Slipper Central" Southern Nantahala Wilderness - late April 2025 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2025) |
| The day after my late April trek up to the Mandarin Coves, I realized that I hadn't visited Cherry Cove, my original premier rich cove spring wildflower discovery, since 2019 (6 years ago!). While a fairly long walk, this had for years been my go-to spot for its tremendous variety of spring ephemerals, not to mention the profusion of Cypripedium acaule at a spot I named "Lady's Slipper Central. Although I was a bit tired from the previous day's exploration, I decided that I needed to get back up there on the mountain! |
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| Pink Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium acaule) The old trail that I used to take from the rear of our home was all overgrown and impossible to find in many spots, so I mostly just bushwhacked straight up the ridge. I passed a few scattered Pink Lady's Slippers along the way. |
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| Showy Orchis (Galearis spectabilis) These were mostly on the way out, although I found a few in decent shape. |
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| One of several large trees at the base of the cliffs. |
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| More of the cliffs |
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| Below these cliffs is where the majority of the earlier spring ephemerals are found, but being the end of April, they were mostly bloomed out, so I continued on. |
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| Vasy's Trillium (Trillium vaseyi) |
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| Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) |
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| Rocks piled on a boulder long ago... |
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| Mountain Bellwort, aka Carolina Bellwort (Podophyllum peltatum) |
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| Back in 2016 I found a spot that had so many Cypripedium acaule that I named it "Lady's Slipper Central". It had been so long since I'd visited that I was afraid it might have been destroyed by hogs, like so many botanical spots that I've explored in the past decade or so. I was pleasantly surprised to find the plants doing even better than I remembered! |
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| A pair of Pink Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium acaule) |
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| Pink Lady's Slipper trio |
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| A clump of five blooms |
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| Another Lady's Slipper pair |
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| Eight Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) blooms |
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| Three adjacent clumps, with seven open flowers and three still in bud. |
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| Another Lady's Slipper trio |
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| And another pair... |
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| A nice group of five Pink Lady's Slippers |
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| A pretty group of six You can see several stalks from last year's flowers. |
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| Pink Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium acaule) One final image! |
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| Back in 2015, I found a population of Lesser Purple Fringed Orchids (Platanthera psycodes) high up near the headwaters of Bell Creek. I swung by to see how they were doing; they looked good. |
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| Another Showy Orchis (Galearis spectabilis) |
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| American Umbrella Leaf (Diphylleia cymosa) |
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| Coming back down the mountain, I took a few pics of some of the falls and cascades along Upper Bell Creek. |
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| The lighting wasn't the best, with the low afternoon sun and shadows... |
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| And I didn't have my tripod... |
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| I was finally down low enough so the mountains were blocking the sun. |