Before you jump to any conclusions, let me say that my “trek” only lasted 7 miles (not the possible 2000 plus) and a few hours (not the 3 – 4 months it takes to do the whole thing.). BUT, being on the trail with only my dog for company was a blast. My favorite hiking partner, Jack, had to work so last Friday Sadie and I headed out to hike the trail, starting at Woody’s Gap in north Georgia.
With Sadie happily bounding through the woods, sniffing out squirrels and chipmunks, I had my nose to the ground looking for wildflowers. Luckily, summer woods wildflowers are much taller than their spring cousins so I didn’t really have my nose all the way on the ground. Even so, I saw masses of beautiful flowers scattered throughout the woods.
This time of year, the yellow composites (daisy like flowers) dominate and I saw lots of native coreopsis, tickseed, tall coneflowers and black eyed Susans both along the roadside and along the trail. Black-eyed Susans are native to American prairies and plains and are now prolific throughout much of the Southeast.
Our native impatiens, jewelweed, grows close to the streams. It is well named as each of these orange or yellowish blossoms grows singly, looking like a precious pendant among the mass of green leaves. Native Americans used the leaves of this plant to counter the effects of poison ivy. I was glad to know this tidbit as there was LOTS of poison ivy along the trail as well.
By far the most colorful flower – and the most abundant – was the summer phlox. The word phlox comes from the Greek word for “flame” . Most of my fires burn yellow, red and orange but perhaps in the days of Aristotle, fires burned pink and purple? Although I have a back yard full of phlox, I was delighted to see such an abundance of it growing in the wild.
Tall, purple bellflower was a new flower for me, as was the starry campion. I was delighted to come back and identify them.
The highlight of the hike (though Sadie may not agree) was finding a Turk’s cap lily. Tall, stately and gorgeous, it was partially hidden in the underbrush, making it all that more exciting to uncover. There are several lilies native to the Southeast but this is the most common.
According to superstition, pink phlox is supposed to give you sweet dreams. That’s one superstition that I completely believe in, as all my dreams that night were of the beauty of the wildflowers along the Appalachian Trail for my (short solo) hike.
Next year maybe I’ll go all the way to Maine.
Maybe not.
Happy summer!