On Reddish Knob

Looking towards West Virginia from Reddish Knob.

 

Last Sunday I joined the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) group on an excursion to Reddish Knob, VA. This is a part of Virginia that I'd never seen before and at 4,101 ft. one of the highest elevation points in the state; the flora in this area and the views promised to be outstanding. 

 

The view south, Shenandoah Mountain.

 

The day was cloudy and cool, and the moment I got on I-81 it started to rain lightly. I had my three-season jacket with me but had opted to leave my rain jacket at home, in order to lighten my backpack--I hoped I wouldn't regret my decision later on. Thankfully the rain stopped by the time I reached the exit at Harrisonburg.

Driving on the back roads through the small towns in this area before finding Briery Branch Road, I skirted around at least a dozen horse and buggy carriages--this is the heart of Mennonite country in Virginia--they were probably heading home from Sunday services. 

 

Old sugar maple (Acer saccharum) trunk

 

Our meeting spot at the Hone Quarry picnic area was by a stream in a rich wood, and we did a bit of botanizing here before driving up to Reddish Knob. Under very large sugar maples, beech, birch and hemlock we found spurred violets (Viola rostata), miterwort (Mitella diphylla) and one very dense growth of one-flowered cancer root (Orobanche uniflora).

Spurred violet (Viola rostata)

Miterwort (Mitella diphylla) among ferns

Cluster of one-flowered cancer root flowers (Orobanche uniflora)

As the name of this species implies, there is only one flower per plant, so this cluster represents many plants growing very close together. The only part of this parasitic plant that grows above ground is the flowering stem. The forest floor elsewhere was thick with sweet white violets, Solomon's seal, Geum, sweet Cicely, Hepatica, ferns, bluets, sedums, wild yam and ebony spleenwort.

 

Wild yams (Dioscoria villosa) in rich woods

 

After we had surveyed this area, we set out as a car caravan to drive up the mountain, pulling out by the side of the fairly narrow road to look at the confabulation of flora on the banks. At our first stop a most remarkable display of Lyre-leaved sage in bloom greeted us, growing among bowman's root, whorled loosestrife, yellow-eyed grass, bracken ferns, mountain laurel and enormously tall plantain-leaved pussytoes.

 

Walk leader Sally Anderson ID's plants on the bank.

Lyre-leaved sage (Salvia lyrata) with plantain-leaved pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia)

Bowmans root (Gilleniua trifoliata) with lyre-leaved sage

Whorled loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia)

Eastern yellow-eyed grass (Hypoxis hirsuta)

There wasn't much space for road traffic to pass by us, and as the last car in line, I could see several cars and trucks piling up on our tail, growing impatient with our pace. We finally reached a place where these could pass us so we could continue at our leisurely pace--I couldn't believe how fast the locals barrel around these curves!

At our next few stops we encountered a number of different arrays of flora on the steep road banks as we climbed: tree-sized pinxter azaleas and lovely dogwoods on the down-sloping bank to our left; starry campion, mountain laurel, wood vetch, violets, Carolina pinks, blueberries and iris on the upward slope to our right.

 

Pinxter azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)

Bird's foot violet (Viola pedata)

Bank filled with Carolina pinks (Silene carolinana)

Close-up of Carolina pink

Dwarf iris (Iris verna)

 

As we rose, the clouds began to clear, and at times patches of sunlight illuminated the banks. Bird's foot violets, mountain bellwort, blueberries, and deerberries appeared.

 

The higher slopes.

Mountain bellwort (Uvularia puberula)

Blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum)

 

At another curve with wider pull-off we walked around a bit and found blueberries and huckleberries, mountain fetterbush, some gaywings, trillium and quite a number of pink lady slipper orchids. These were much smaller than the ones I've seen in Fort Valley but every bit as lovely.

 

Gaywings (Polygala pauciflora)

Mountain fetterbush (Pieris floribunda)

Pink lady slipper orchids (Cypripedium acaule)

Huckleberries (Gaylusia sp.)

As we ascended, it was as if spring were unwinding backwards--the foliage was just emerging at these heights. We stopped briefly at a bend, the intersection with FR 85, and saw a hillside carpeted with interrupted fern just at the stage when the spore-bearing fronds (sporangia) were maturing. I climbed down the steep bank for a closer look.

 

Hillside with interrupted fern (Osmunda claytoniana)

Interrupted fern with sporangia

Close-up of spore-bearing fronds

 

These curious spore-bearing fronds occur not on the underside or edges of the leaves as in many ferns, but in the middle of the fronds, and fall off after they ripen, thence interrupting the frond. After this last stop, it was time to move toward Reddish Knob--it was almost five o'clock. We drove past a couple of lovely stands of wild lupines without stopping.

The last part of the road leading to the knob was very narrow and steep, and began to reveal the incredible views all around. The small parking area at the top was covered in graffitti--college kids from Harrisonburg like to drive up here to party.

 

VNPS group at Reddish Knob

On the way back down, I had to maneuver to allow another car coming up the narrow road to pass--there was no way for either of us to turn around. Then I stopped to photograph the lupines before heading home.

Sundial lupines (Lupinus perennis)

Lake Waccamaw

Lake Waccamaw State Park rangers guide the NCNPS group.

The following morning the North Carolina Native Plant Society (NCNPS) group met at Lake Waccamaw State Park for a tour of the trails surrounding the Visitor's Center. Covering 36 acres, Lake Waccamaw is the largest of North Carolina's "bay lakes," a term for this type of oval-shaped fresh water lakes. On Friday evening, the Head ranger had given the group a talk describing some of the theories about the formation of these unusual lakes that occur in certain regions along the eastern seaboard. I remembered reading one theory in a National Geographic article years ago about a prehistoric meteor strike leaving these craters which later filled with water and developed certain type of ecosystems, but evidently this theory has now been dismissed as unlikely. The most plausible theory seems to be that the lakes formed as a result of a combination of the massive land and ocean processes that took place during the Pleistocene era, when this area was submerged. The lakes in this area all seem to have a high limestone shelf on their northwestern rims and sandy shores on the southeastern portions, and three varieties of bay trees predominate: sweet bay, red bay and loblolly bay.

Loblolly bay (Gordonia lasianthus), the leaves have crenulate edges.

As we began our walk, the Rangers explained that the park had recently begun to use managed burns to control the undergrowth and try to restore native habitats. The fire doesn't damage the established trees, and improves the overall health of the forest, but the rangers were of the opinion that a successful controlled burn is very much an art, and the precise weather conditions need to be taken into account if the fire is not to get out of control.

Prickly pear (Opuntia humifusia) growing among bracken ferns.

Pink spiderwort (Trandescantia virginiana)

I was surprised to see Prickly Pear blooming among the bracken ferns near the Visitor's Center, and was assured that these cacti are actually native to the entire east coast from Florida to Connecticut--I had always thought they had been introduced from the southwest and naturalized. We also came across a lovely pink-flowered Spiderwort --I've only seen the blue Spiderwort (Trandescantia virginiana) before.

Fetterbush (Lyonia lucida) growing under turkey oaks.

Honeybells (Zenobia pulverulenta) with Fetterbush  in back.

The forest floor was carpeted with bracken and other ferns. Flowering native bushes such as Fetterbush (Lyonia lucida) with small pinkish bells and the sweetly scented Honeybells (Zenobia pulverulenta) bloomed below the shelter of the turkey oaks. I spotted a tiny-leaved plant on the forest floor and was told this was Pixie Moss (Pyxidanthera barbulata)--it could make a lovely ground cover in the right garden.

Pixie Moss (Pyxidanthera barbulata)

All these were a completely new community of plants to me, a fascinating environment to be introduced to. There were also many birds here: a number of warblers, mocking birds, and brown thrashers were spotted by the bird-savvy among the group.

The time for our departure came much too soon--Linda and I needed to start our 7-hour trip back by noon in order to get home at a decent hour, so we said goodbye to our new-found friends in NC around eleven and started walking back to our car. One lone wild turkey crossed our path, and Linda lingered to identify an indigo bunting along the way.

I wished we could have stayed one more day--despite our precautions, we still encountered a huge backup on I-95 after we passed Richmond this Sunday evening, and spent almost an hour fighting the traffic to reach our exit. The sun was just setting on this beautiful spring day as we returned to the Shenandoah Valley.

The forest at Lake Waccamaw.

For more photos of our walk at Lake Waccamaw State Park and the Green Swamp see my Flickr album here.