Two sites for Spring wildflowers in Pickens County, SC — 2020-03-19

I hope, in these times of uncertainty and sober reflection, that sharing my adventures out in the field will bring a respite from the travel restrictions that some of you may be facing. In South Carolina, we are not yet restricted from traveling, and I feel that my brief excursions into rural areas away from groups of people is still a safe way to get exercise and to center my sprit.

On Thursday, March 19, Walter Ezell and I took a day trip to two sites in the upstate of South Carolina — Pickens County, to be specific. These two sites are known as “Southern Appalachian, Rich Cove Forests”. The Rich Cove Forest is a lush, shady natural community with tall trees, and many herbacious plants in the understory. They are found at low to middle elevations in the Northern Blue Ridge and adjacent Ridge and Valley. Often, they are loaded with many varieties of wildflowers, especially in the Spring and early Summer.

The first site is one I have visited many times before. In fact, my most recent blog post featured wildflowers from this site. It is known as Nine Times Preserve — owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy. On this visit, we had hoped to locate some of the colorful Hepatica acutiloba or Sharp-lobed Hepatica which we have seen in previous years. On my previous visit, just a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that the creek-side area, where this species normally grows, had been overrun by the high waters of the creek because of the terrific amount of rain we have had in late Winter and early Spring. The herbaceous layer on the creek bank had been covered by deep sand and debris. On this visit, we did find a few of these beautiful plants which had dodged the over-wash, and so we set about photographing those few flowers. Note the sand surrounding these plants, where normally there is a thick layer of leaf litter:

Sharp-lobed Hepatica

This site is particularly known for another early Spring ephemeral. Although the dense blooming of Erythronium umbilicatum or Dimpled Trout Lilies was well past peak bloom, there were still a few hundred late ones in fairly good shape:

Another species which we had hoped to find was Sanguinaria canadenis or Blood Root. We were not disappointed. In fact, I had not seen so many of them in bloom on the hillside as we did on this trip. Here are a few images of some of these beauties:

While there, we discovered two very unusual flowers which had several translucent or partially translucent petals. I had seen images of flowers like these, but I had never had the fortune to photograph them, myself:

After finishing up at Nine Times Preserve, we packed our gear and proceeded to drive a couple of miles to the second site for the day — Peach Orchard Branch. Here, a combination of magnesium-rich bedrock, high rainfall and steep slopes combine to produce habitat for some very interesting and rare species of plants. We parked on the primitive, roadside pull-off, gathered our gear, and began the gently sloping, mile-long hike to this special wildflower location. I must take just a minute to thank my friend, Rich Stevenson, for pointing out this location to me a couple of years ago. Since then, I have made several visits and have never been disappointed by its rich diversity of Spring wildflowers.

The first wildflower species we spotted was one that we had just photographed at Nine Times Preserve, Hepatica acutiloba or Sharp-lobed Hepatica. There were thousands of them scattered on the damp hillside and along the creek bank. Unlike the ones we had just photographed, these were mostly pure white. So, I looked closely to see if I could spot some with pink or magenta centers. These are some of my favorite color forms. We did find a few of them and quickly set out to photograph them:

Farther on down the trail, we spotted another interesting wildflower. It is only a couple of inches tall, but is still a beautiful plant to see. It is Obolaria virginica or Virginia Pennywort. There were several dozen plants perched on the creek bank — some in association with a few Sharp-lobed Hepatica as well as Trillium discolor or Faded Trillium, which was still in tight bud:

One bright little wildflower we kept seeing here and there was Viola hastata or Halberd-leaved violet. These always look so nice against the variously colored leaf litter. Their bright yellow flowers are not easy to overlook:

The main attraction for this relatively small site is the rare (for South Carolina) and unusually flowered Pachysandra procumbens or Allegheny Spurge. It’s probably the largest South Carolina site with many thousands of plants growing along the creek and up the damp hillsides. This is one of those plants whose fragrance is noticed before the flowers are seen. The flowers of this plant are composed mostly of the male stamens. The plants are monoecious which means that the male and female flowers are separate and are found on the same plant. Here are a couple of images that show this characteristic:

The male flowers (stamens only, no petals) are white with pinkish and greenish anthers at the apex of each of four white filaments. The female flowers are composed of three or rarely four pinkish petals. There are usually many more male flowers than female flowers on each inflorescence. Although I show the female flowers at the base of the inflorescence (where they normally appear), I have seen them occasionally appear at the apex of the inflorescence.

We spent a couple of hours enjoying the Spring wildflowers at this site. On our way back to the truck, we spotted several groups of another fairly common Spring wildflower, Thalictrum thalictroides or Rue Anemone. These flowers are surprisingly similar to those of Sharp-lobed Hepatica. The leaves tell the tale, though:

We also saw large drifts of Trillium discolor or Faded Trillium, all in tight bud. These won’t be in bloom for another month, around mid-April. But, the foliage was so striking, that I thought I’d photograph some of them:

Here is what it will look like when in bloom:

What a great day out in the field! The Spring wildflower season is just getting started in our region of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. I hope to continue to report back to you over the next couple of months, and I hope to visit some new sites, as well.

Until then, stay safe and be kind to one another…

–Jim