If you’re a wildflower lover like me, the year has two peak times in Georgia. One is in late March and April, when spring ephemerals, trilliums, violets and other spring wildflowers burst into breathtaking blooms.
The other is in late September and October, when asters, goldenrods and other fall wildflowers explode into riots of color — as if in hot competition with the oaks, maples, tulip poplars and other hardwoods donning their red, orange and yellow foliages of fall.
Few other places can match North Georgia’s mountains for these outpourings of seasonal color, and that’s what drew several of us Georgia Botanical Society members last weekend to Union and Towns counties on a field trip.
The wildflowers never fail to please us at this time of year. In a boggy mountain meadow in Towns County, we found blooming ladies’-tresses (white), downy lobelia (blue), stiff gentian (blue), black-eyed Susan, monkshood (blue), sneezeweed (yellow), wing-stem (yellow), mountain mint and many others. We also found patches of a particularly stunning fall wildflower, the kidneyleaf grass-of-parnassus, which is not a grass but a white flower with striking green stripes.
The signature wildflowers of fall, of course, are the goldenrods and asters, which seemed to be blooming everywhere. Georgia has some 35 aster species and over 25 goldenrod species, including an unusual white-colored species (Solidago bicolor) that we found. Goldenrods and asters often grow together, a feast for the eyes.
We also found two of Georgia’s rarest, most beautiful wildflowers in bloom — the fringed gentian (blue) and the largeleaf grass-of-parnassus. Also in flower were witch hazel trees, just in time for Halloween.
Most of the fall wildflowers should still be blooming this weekend and into next week. I predict that fall leaf color also should be reaching its prime next week. This time of year, though, each day is different, and the landscape can dramatically change with the passage of a week.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The Orionid meteor shower peaks at about 20 meteors per hour this weekend — in the east after dark. The moon will be first quarter on Sunday. Venus rises in the east a few hours before sunrise. Jupiter rises in the east around dusk. Saturn is in the east at dark and will appear near the moon Monday night.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
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