Native Plant of the Day 08/05/2015
Photo from June 20, 2004. Location: Appalachian Trail, Unicoi Gap to Hogpen Gap. White County, GA.
Virginia Spiderwort – for more information go to the Tradescantia virginiana detail page.
Virginia Spiderwort – Tradescantia virginiana
Native Plant of the Day 09/20/2014
Photo from Sep 6, 2010. Location: Reflection Riding, Hamilton County, TN
Zigzag Spiderwort – for more photos / information go to the Tradescantia subaspera detail page.
Zigzag Spiderwort, Wideleaf Spiderwort – Tradescantia subaspera
Grassy Mountain is a 3600’+ peak in Murray County, Georgia, just outside the southwest corner of the Cohutta Wilderness. It’s probably best known as the home of Conasauga Lake, which at 3150′ is the highest lake in Georgia. It is formed by a small dam on the headwaters of Mill Creek. I’d spent a lot of time in and around the Cohutta Wilderness in the 90’s, but hadn’t been back much since then, so when I got an email last week from Mike Christison of the Georgia Botanical Society where he mentioned he’d seen Yellow Ladyslippers blooming on Grassy Mountain in the past, and that they were recently blooming at a much lower elevation, I figured this would be a great time for a return trip to the area. In spite of the cool temperatures, wind, and occasional rain, it WAS a great time; my wife and I identified (at least to a genus level) 37 40 different wildflower species in bloom, including this Wideleaf Spiderwort (Tradescantia subaspera.)
Wideleaf Spiderwort – Tradescantia subaspera along Mill Creek Road
I made a July trip over to Cloudland Canyon State Park to see the waterfalls with an expectation that I’d also see many wildflowers along the way, and I wasn’t disappointed. While recently posting a report on a visit to nearby Lula Falls, I discovered that I’d never written the planned report on the Cloudland Canyon trip. I quickly realized that I didn’t remember many of the details of the walk – and I was relieved to discover that the July trip was in 2011, not just this past July, so the memory fade was more reasonable. But to refresh that failing memory, I made another trip up there on Dec 5. Here are a dozen photos from those two “waterfalls and wildflowers walks.”
(Click on any image and you’ll go to Flickr where you can view larger sized images.)
Unnamed Falls along Sitton Gulch Trail near the Waterfalls Trail junction – Cloudland Canyon State Park
USWildflowers Daily Plant 12/05/2012
Photo from 6/6/2009. Location: Walker County, GA
Asiatic Dayflower, an introduced and possibly invasive species. For more information go to the Commelina communis detail page.
Asiatic Dayflower – Commelina communis
Zigzag Spiderwort, a native species, has been added to the USWildflowers database (09/10/2010.) Scientific name is Tradescantia subaspera. Another common name is Wideleaf Spiderwort. Photo below was taken at Reflection Riding in Hamilton County, Tennessee on Sep 6, 2010.
Zigzag Spiderwort, Wideleaf Spiderwort - Tradescantia subaspera