Anne S. Napier's Web Pages
Home | Hiking | Reunions | Excursions with Sophie
Anne & Jill Go Hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Wildflowers & Waterfalls
Saturday, April 12, 2014
A beautiful, warm spring day. Lots of wildflowers!! Lots of photos (which slowed us down considerably)!!
Porters Creek Trail to Ferm Branch Falls
Big Creek & Mouse Creek Falls Trail
We hiked on two trails. Each was 4 miles round trip, although Jill said that according to her books & maps, we actually hiked 7.8 miles with an overall elevation gain of 1100 feet. I'm going with adding up the trail signs for a total of 8 miles! It was a wonderful day! We saw at least 40 different wildflowers. I was able to identify most of them (I think).
Top left: Fringed Phacelia as far as we could see ~ Right: Fern Branch Falls ~ both on Porters Creek Trail
Middle left: Rue Anemone on Porters Creek Trail ~ Right: Midnight Hole on the Big Creek Trail
Bottom left: Mouse Creek Falls ~ Right: Purple Phacelia ~ both on Big Creek Trail
Mouse Creek Falls is the waterfall on my quilt, which is STILL a work in progress after many years. I used a photo taken by
Julie Jones of Asheville to draw the quilt block. Now I have finally seen & photographed the falls for myself.
List of Wildflowers
Plant |
Scientific Name (if known) |
| Aster or sunflower family - yellow flowers | |
| Aster, blue/pink | |
| Bishop's cap | Mitella diphylla |
| Carolina or wood vetch | Vicia caroliniana |
| Common cinqueoil | Potentilla canadensis |
| Creeping flox, blue & pink | Phlox stolonifera |
| Dogwood | Cornus florida |
| Dwarf crested iris | Iris cristata |
| Dwarf ginseng | Panax trifolius |
| False solomon's seal (flower not open) | Smilacina racemosa |
| Firepink | Silene virginica |
| Foamflower | Tiarella cordifolia Linnaeus |
| Giant chickweed | Stellaria pubera Michaux |
| Meadow parsnip | Thaspium spp. |
| Purple phacelia | Phacelia bipennatifida |
| Rue anemone | Thalictrum (Anemonella) thalictroides |
| Sedum - green & pink leaves, pale green flowers | |
| Sedum (?) - light green leaves, white flowers | |
| Showy orchis, with buds & open blossoms | Galearis (Orchis) spectabilis |
| Solomon's seal | Polygonatum biflorum |
| Spring beauty | Claytonia virginica |
| Squirrel corn | Dicentra canadensis |
| Sweet shrub (with flower buds) | Calycanthus floridus |
| Trillium, large-flowered white | Trillium grandiflorum |
| Trillium, white erect | Trillium erectum forma albiflorum |
| Trillium, yellow | Trillium luteum |
| Trillium, purple wakerobin | Trillium erectum var. erectum |
| Trout lily, beaked | Erythronium rostratum |
| Trout lily, yellow | Erythronium americanum |
| Violet, halberd-leaved, both mottled & plain leaves | Viola hastata |
| Violet, purple or common blue | Viola sororia (papilionacea) |
| Violet, round-leaved, yellow | Viola rotundifolia |
| Violet, sweet white | Viola blanda |
| White fringed phacelia | Phacelia fimbriata |
| Wild geranium | Geranium maculatum |
| Wood anemone | Anemone lancifolia |
| Yellow blossoms on a tall spindly stem | |
| + 2 or 3 Unidentified (photos not clear) |
For More Information
Porters Creek Trail ~ Hiking in the Smokys Website
Big Creek Trail ~ Hiking in the Smokys Website
Great Smoky Mountains National Park ~ National Park Service
Great Smoky Mountains National Park ~ National Geographic
Home | Hiking | Reunions | Excursions with Sophie
Photos in header: Niagara Falls; Big Sur, CA; Golden Gate Bridge, CA; Sunset on the Baltic Sea;
Virginia Creeper Trail, VA; Emerald Lake, Yukon, Canada; Glacier Bay, Alaska; Sunset on the Pacific; Triple Falls at
DuPont Forest, NC.
Header Photo Credits: All Anne S. Napier except Niagara Falls by Herman Stubblefield.
Photos by Anne S. Napier ~ Obviously Jill took the ones of Anne.
Updated October 17, 2014