Our last wildflower hike in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park…
The Cove Hardwood trail starts from the Chimneys picnic area. It is a short .7 mile hike with an elevation gain of 235 feet.
Easy walk thru the woods.
The Cove Hardwoods Nature Trail tours a pristine swath of old growth hardwoods, and features a spring wildflower display considered tops in the Park. In April the forest floor comes alive with phacelia, trillium, bishops cap, spring beauty, toothwort, bleeding heart, and many more
White Fringed Phacelia- Phacelia fimbriata
White Erect Trilliums bloom in April and May, reach a height of up to 12", and grow in large colonies from the foothills to elevations up to 5000'. The blossom generally has a dark center which helps to distinguish it from the Large-Flowered Trillium.
The predominant flower on this trail was Trillium
Huge sections of Trillium..
Rue Anemone
Thalictrum thalictroides / Buttercup Family
Height: 4" - 12"
Miterwort; Bishop's Cap
Mitella breweri
It might be different after a hard rain.
Does anyone know what this is?
Mystery solved that’s to naturalist extraordinaire
Jim McCormac
"Your mystery plant is a cool liitle fern called Walking Fern, Asplenium rhizophyllum. The long tips of the fronds root where they touch ground, and form another shoot which then does the same. Thus, the plants "walk" about, and spread themselves in this curious manner."
..check out Jim’s blog here.
Yellow Trout Lily Erythronium americanum
Sharp-leaved Hepatica; Liverleaf
Hepatica acutiloba /Buttercup Family
Flower sepals may be blue, purple, pink, or white depending on the pH of the soil --- a "natural litmus test." Alkaline soils produce blue flowers, acidic soils produce pink, and neutral soils produce white.
Another one of my favorites of this trip.
Squirrel Corn Dicentra canadensis / Bleeding Heart
Carolina Spring Beauty Claytonia caroliniana
from what I have read..as the flowers get older they get a purple tinge to them.
Rue Anemone
Thalictrum thalictroides / Buttercup Family
Height: 4" - 12"
This was a super walk in an old growth hardwood forest with beautiful spring wildflowers.
I hope you all are able to experience spring wildflowers in
The Great Smoky Mountains!
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