Princess Trees and Fire Pink

Princess Tree

Yellow Flag Iris

Fire Pink

Black Locust

Lots of new stuff has started blooming this week. I finally got time to get a few pictures today. We get lots of folks asking about the pretty purple flowers on the trees by the entrance road. Those are Princess Tree or Pawlonia. They are a fast-growing exotic from Asia. At Bays Mountain Park, they seem to do well only in disturbed areas near the entrance road. 

Another exotic in bloom right is the Yellow Flag Iris. These grow with their roots in the water and their leaves in the sun. You can find them blooming in patches all around the lake.

Fire Pink is a native wildflower that I have just seen this week, but I have had reports of it blooming for the past 2-3 weeks. This specimen and several others are on the rock cliffs near the upper end of the entrance road. They like to grow in very dry soils, so they are more common on slopes and ridge tops.

Black Locust is a fairly common tree in this area, but less so in the park. They prefer open sunny areas, so they can be found along the entrance road and around the lake in the park. The flowers have a wonderful perfume that is very attractive to honeybees.

Coralroot and Bluets

Wister's Coralroot

Bluet

These are not the best quality photos, but the top one shows the coralroot beside the front sidewalk at the park. Bluets are some of my favorite flowers because they show up in these masses of tiny flowers. Their color varies from a pale blue to almost solid white with a yellow eye in the center.

Another Orchid

I saw a specimen of Wister's coralroot blooming by the front walk on Monday. This is a very inconspicuous flower and hard for me to see, even in known locations. So far, the front walk is the only place I have seen it in the park. There is a fall-blooming species of coralroot that grows in the same general area and blooms in September. I also found some pink lady's slipper plants coming up. They usually bloom in early to mid May.

April 9, 2012: Wister's Coralroot, Dogwood, Bear Corn, Halberd-leaved Violet, Wild Geranium, Wood Anemone, Yellow Rocket, Ragwort (Balsam and/or Golden), Garlic Mustard, Bluet, Pink Azalea

April 11, 2012: Showy Orchis, Pink Azalea, Dogwood, Ragwort (Balsam and/or Golden), Bluet, Pennywort, Bird-foot Violet, Wild Comfrey, Wister's Coralroot, Wood Anemone, Wild Geranium, Perfoliate Bellwort, Dwarf Iris, Chickweed

Showy Orchis Has Arrived!

I finally made it out today to look for flowers. Lots of stuff is in bloom right now. The warm weather this spring has really gotten things moving. Everything right now seems to be running about two weeks ahead of past years.

I have a special interest in our native orchids, so I was excited to see several specimens of Showy Orchis in bloom.

Water lilies are coming up pretty strongly now. The bullhead lilies are in bud, so there should be some flowers by next week.

Pink Azalea

Unusual 5-petaled Bluet

Wild Geranium

Wood Anemone

Showy Orchis

Bird-foot Violet

April 6, 2012: Bluet, Bear Corn, Dogwood, Pussytoes, Balsam Ragwort, Bird-foot Violet, Halberd-leaved Violet, Pink Azalea, Wood Vetch, Wild Geranium (Cranesbill), Rue Anemone, Wood Anemone, Showy Orchis, Garlic Mustard, Kidney-leaf Buttercup, Canada Violet, Chickweed, Dwarf Iris, Perfoliate Bellwort, Pennywort, Yellow Rocket

So far this month, it has been a little hard to get out looking for flowers.  Here is my list, by date, for the month of March.

3/21/2012 Pennywort, Bluets, Trailing Arbutus, Redbud, Spicebush, Sarvis (Serviceberry), Golden Ragwort, Great Chickweed, Rue Anemone, Halberd-leaved Violet, Wood Vetch

3/23/2012 Sassafras, Redbud, Sarvis , Peach, Bluets, Pussytoes, Trailing Arbutus, Bear Corn, Halberd-leaved Violet, Golden Ragwort, Common Violet

3/26/2012 Halberd-leaved Violet, Bluets, Trailing Arbutus, Redbud, Sassafras, Common Violet, Wood Vetch, Sarvis, Golden Ragwort, Garlic Mustard, Bear Corn

I will try to post more photos later today.

Late March Wildflowers

The top photo is our peach tree at the west end of the dam, March 23, 2012. I would guess that someone threw out a peach pit many years ago and it sprouted. This tree blooms every year and produces fruit most years. The fruit always gets eaten by the squirrels before it gets ripe, though.

The middle photo is a sassafras tree in bloom March 23, 2012.

The bottom photo is Trailing Arbutus in bloom March 26, 2012.

Introduction to Bays Mountain Park Wildflowers

This will be a blog about the wildflowers of Bays Mountain Park and the surrounding area in northeast Tennessee. As a naturalist at Bays Mountain Park, I have a special interest in the local wildflowers. The park has a large variety of native and exotic wildflowers that bloom from about late February to early December. Over the past several years, I have been keeping track of the bloom sequences and species found in the park. This information may be useful for enthusiasts and scientists looking for particular flowers or changes in the ecology of our area. Updates to the blog will be on an irregular basis. Spring, when many of our showy flowers bloom, is also my busiest season at work. That means I may not have time to look for flowers, or I may delay posting the flowers I do see.