Hello everyone! I have a hobby of wildflower chasing, and I take a lot of pics. According to my inaturalist account, I have 1,796 observations and 938 species seen. >w>
I will post pictures I’ve taken here, if folks are interested!
To start with, these were taken on a “vertical bog” along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It’s a known spot for rare species and popular with native plant lovers like me.
Some wonderful finds.
THESE ARE ALL SO PRETTY GOSH
Largest expanse of unenclosed heathland, woodland and wetland in southern England. A rich biodiverse place, with semi feral ponies calling it home.
Since it’s officially March, we’re already starting to get the first peeks at the earliest of spring wildflowers. These are pictures I’ve taken in past years around this time!
The first is a plant called Skunk cabbage. The town I used to live in was the very southernmost tip of their furthest native range. They’re absolutely fascinating plants - not only do they look alien like this, but they were used as natural medicine, harvested in the wild and commercially sold all the way up into the late 1800s. On top of that, because they evolved to sprout up in the middle of February in northern climates, and they grow in wetland environments, they’re a rare thermogenic plant that generates its own heat through cellular respiration when it blooms to melt snow and ice around them. This means you can actually pick them up on thermal imaging! The flowers come up several months before the leaves do, and as the only insects around at this time of years are small flies that’s what they evolved to be pollinated by. One thing’s for sure, at this time of year they lack any competition to grow.
Flowers are starting to bloom now! Today I followed some directions given by an online acquaintance and went to an old pasture next to a circle k gas station (lol) to check out a patch of endangered bladderpod flowers as well as a small native Phacelia.
These are prettyyyy, I love em!
The leaves of the bladderpod had a nice momentary sweet smell like cloves if you tore one in two or rubbed it firmly between your fingers. It’s always really fun when you have a flower that’s got a super pleasant fragrance! I’m not sure who the winner is in my experience. There’s one that was exactly like mocha coffee. Another that was just like lemon pledge, even smelling artificial and everything. And one that was cinnamon pancakes - supposedly you can often smell that flower’s scent from a good 50 feet away even though they’re less than four inches tall…
I want a small garden when I get my own place, they’re really pretty and breathtaking…
And if you plant native plants, before long you’ll start to get all kinds of pollinating insects, birds and other visitors. It really brings your yard to life! 
I LOVE BEES. THEY’RE SO CUTE AND AUGHHHHH I LOVE BEES
Lots of lovely pictures this time from a recent trip to Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga and Shakerag Hollow in Sewanee! Lanceleaf Trillium are a rare species of trillium and I got to find some in a floodplain forest below the mountain there. Shakerag Hollow was home to the newly-described (as of last year) species Sewanee Phacelia, which formed dense carpets covering huge parts of the slope in big, dark purple blooms. Worth the slightly arduous hike downhill to get there!!
The purple ones are pretty…
