Mt Pleasant - Wildflowers

 Early June wildflowers were in abundance on our Monday Hike. We hiked this a week earlier last year, so a whole new set of flowers were in bloom. But we missed the Lady Slipper orchids.

Rhododendrons (most likely Rhododendron catawbiense) were the stars this time. We hit peak bloom time.

The illusive Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arasaema triphyllum) is always one of our favorites.

False and True Solomon's Seal were common and usually found together. False (Maianthemum racemosa, flower cluster at end of stalk) is on the left, and True (Polyganatum biflorum, hanging flowers along stem) is on the right.

The leaves give this plant away as a Clintonia - in this case, White Clintonia (Clintonia umbellulata).

Indian Cucumber-root (Medeola virginiana) is common and easy to identify from its whorled leaves. More difficult to see are the small green flowers hanging from the top whorl. In the fall the plant sports blue-black berries on brilliant red pedicels.

Cow Parsnip (Heracleum lanatum, formerly H. maximum) is a plant to be wary of. It is large (3-6 ft, 1-2 m high), with equally huge leaves and flowers. Be careful! The sap can make your skin photosensitive and erupt into large blisters. A similar looking but much larger plant, Giant Hogweed (H. mantegazzianum), was introduced as an exotic garden plant. It is far more noxious and requires a hazmat team for removal!

We saw lots of these leaves as ground cover, but only rarely saw the flower of False Lily-of-the-Valley (Maianthemum canadense).

At the summit we found a nice large patch of Bleeding Heart (Dicentra eximia). This is a relatively rare plant and is listed as threatened or endangered in some states.

Right behind the Bleeding Heart was a magnificent specimen of Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum).

Two spectacular ferns. On the left is Cinnamon Fern (Osmunda cinnamomea), so named because its spore frond resembles a cinnamon stick. On the right is Interrupted Fern (Osmunda claytoniana). It is distinguished from the Cinnamon Fern by having spores in the middle of the frond. Both are large ferns. I've seen cinnamon ferns 5 ft (1.5 m) high.

Mountain-ash (Sorbus americana) is not an ash, even though its compound leaf does resemble that of an ash. It is a small tree/shrub in the rose family (Rosaceae). Later in the summer the flowers will become a large cluster of bright red berries.

Beardtongue (Penstemon canescens).