OK, that headline may be misleading. “At USWildflowers.com” doesn’t mean we have a scoop on a news story that hasn’t made the mainstream headlines yet; it means that USWildflowers.com is now treating the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as it does the individual United States – you can get listings of the USWildflowers’ database of wildflower species that are found in the park.
Whorled Loosestrife – Lysimachia quadrifolia – along the Low Gap Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, June 28, 2014
Not that an argument couldn’t be made that the Smokies is deserving of state status. After all, it gets over 9.4 million annual visitors, more people than reside in any but 10 of the states. At more than 521,000 acres it has more land than the District of Columbia and any of the U.S. territories except for Puerto Rico. But instead it’s the more than 1600 species of flowering plants, along with the fact that it’s located only 100 or so miles from where I live, that brings it to “state level” recognition here on USWildflowers.com.
OK, these two aren’t among the vascular plants found in the Smokies, but they are as beautiful as any flower found in the park – Granddaughters Krista and Sydney on Chimney Tops Trail in December, 2012. One of my most enjoyed hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
You can reach the State Reference Page for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by using the state selection list below or from the many pages where that drop-down list is found – GSMNP is at the bottom of the list. There you get a list of a few references for Smokies wildflower identification, as well as links to thumbnail and family listings of the (as of now) 310 species on USWildflowers.com that can be found in the Smokies.