Wildflowers in the Smokies

Different people like different activities when they go out in nature. My "thing" is identifying wildflowers. I could spend hours in the woods looking for flowers to identify. On our recent trip the the Smokies, I took along my camera to capture the flowers' images. I haven't identified all of them (yet), but I thought I'd share with you the ones I am pretty sure I've identified correctly.

This first one is Crimson Bee Balm (also known as Oswego Tea) which is prolific in the park. The bright red jumps out at you from all that green.



This next one is a little blurry (my camera isn't great), but it is a decent picture of what I think is Turk's-cap Lilies. The color was very distinctive and that, along with the curled-up shape, made it fairly easy to identify.



This striking blue flower jumped out at me. At first I thought some of the petals had been ripped off by an animal or another hiker, but I discovered that this flower actually only has two petals. What was even more bizarre was that this flower, introduced to America from Asia, has blooms that only bloom for one day. This one happened to bloom on the same day I took my hike. It's called the Asiatic Dayflower.



Finally, this is a photo of a Thimbleweed. Although the photo is a little blurry around the flower head due to the glare of the sun, I was able to identify it in person and am fairly certain about its name. The flower seemed to shoot right up out of the foliage which was on the ground.



I have more pictures I'll share in a later post. I've probably given enough for now. My husband has posted two different posts about our vacation on his blog at A View from the Crossroads. Go there to check out a picture from their whitewater rafting trip.