Hiking in the Smokies

My first spring wildflower hike was on Chestnut Top Trail, in the Great Smoky Mountains. Although it seemed relatively early to catch the early spring wildflowers on Chestnut Top, by March 23, they had already peaked. We had several days previously when the temperatures were near the 80s, and since Chestnut Top gets a lot of sun, a week earlier might have been better. Rue anemone, bloodroot, and hapatica were almost finished. Oddly, trailing arbutus was in full bloom (it usually blooms in early to mid-February on this trail), as was Trillium erectum (a plant I think of as blooming later). I also found it interesting that the yellow trillium (T. luteum) is almost always the first, early trillium to bloom, but on this day, almost all of them were still in bud. I saw just 3 beginning to open, of hundreds in bud).

Wildflowers that I think of as blooming much later were already in bud (Wood betony, or lousewort), and we saw one small clump of fire pink in full bloom. At this posting, I seem unable to upload photos to a new album. I'll try again later and then you can see the photo album for Chestnut Top 2011 for pictures.