Big Creek Wildflower Walk

A lovely, warm spring day welcomed our group of 27 BRNN Wildflower enthusiasts to our annual outing at Big Creek in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our group featured some of the founders of the Blue Ridge Naturalist program – Jesse Wilder, Scott Dean, and Dan Lazar, as well as no fewer than three current and past presidents of the Blue Ridge Naturalist Network. Our gang divided into three groups, with Scott Dean and Jim Poling leading wildflower-intensive explorations, and Randy Richardson leading a group on a longer hike to Midnight Hole and Mouse Creek Falls. While some of early spring wildflowers were past their prime, the Big Creek trails did not disappoint. Botanical highlights included Yellow Trillium, Fernleaf and Fringed Phacelias, Showy Orchis, Dwarf Crested Irises, and plenty of Fire Pinks. Selected photos from the event follow:

Members gather for walk– photo by Jim Poling

Invasive Plants: What’s the Problem?

Presenter: Bob Gale, Ecologist and Public Lands Director, MountainTrue

Tuesday, May 9, 7 pm at the UNCA Reuter Center and on Zoom

Join Zoom Meeting

https://unca-edu.zoom.us/j/95732119316?pwd=OC9sMnVDb3hjL2NBSEZmNTJRREQxdz09

Non-native species have invaded our forests, yards and open spaces. These invasive plants with aggressive growth habits are rapidly displacing native plant species and imperiling the local fauna that depend upon them.

Bob Gale has served MountainTrue for 25 years, where he has worked on a broad range of issues affecting forests and rural lands. He leads MountainTrue’s non-native invasive species program and is a member of the NC Invasive Plants Council. His talk will illustrate the problems created by invasives on public lands and in our yards and offer solutions for species of greatest concern.

“We have allowed alien plants to replace natives all over the country. Our native animals and plants cannot adapt to this gross and completely unnatural manipulation … Their only hope for a sustainable future is for us to intervene to right the wrongs that we have perpetrated.”― Douglas W. Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home

Outings, Past Events, Plants

Station Cove Wildflower Walk

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Despite the long drive, we had a total of 22 members join us for our Wildflowers and Waterfall Walk at Station Cove on Wednesday April 5. The rain held off and we were treated to temperatures in the low 80’s, making this feel more like a summer event! The wildflowers did not disappoint, with highlights including Catesby’s Trillium, Pinxterbloom Azalea, Three-Part and Marsh Blue Violets, Perfoliate Bellwort, Showy Orchis, Virginia Pennywort, Whorled Stoneroot, Dwarf Crested Iris, Violet Wood Sorrel, and Eastern Blue Star.

At the trail’s end a gorgeous waterfall provided a scenic backdrop to lunch on the trail. Some participants made a full day of it, visiting Whitewater Falls on the return trip and even Devil’s Fork State Park for the last blooming Oconee Bells of the Season. A few of the botanical highlights are pictured below.