We weren’t planning on going to The Pocket today. It was beautiful, and I’d heard some rumors that piqued an interest in another site – didn’t pan out, but on our way home we passed within a couple of miles of The Pocket, so at the last minute we decided to check it out. We’d seen on Facebook that Dutchmen’s Breeches were blooming in the Smokies, so I wanted to check to see if they were blooming at the pocket – see below; they were!
Dutchman’s Breeches – Dicentra cucullaria
It’s been nearly 2 weeks since I made it down to The Pocket – my apologies for the paucity of status updates this year. Even more species (38) are blooming now than two weeks ago (28), even though we’ve lost, or nearly lost, a few. I only saw a single Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) bloom, Harbinger-of-Spring is gone, Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) has completed its bloom, there are only a few Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) still blooming, Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) are essentially gone, and I couldn’t find the single Pennywort (Obolaria virginica) I saw two weeks ago.
The only remaining Dutchman’s Breeches flowers I could find.
The Georgia Botanical Society made their trip to Cloudland Canyon State Park on Saturday, April 11, and I saw their photo report on Facebook. That, and a report from Richard Ware’s Sunday trip to the same location, inspired me to take advantage of a break in this week’s rain on Tuesday to get back over to Sitton’s Gulch to see the Dwarf Larkspur, Southern Red Trillium, and other wildflowers. It was a great choice, with at least 34 species of wildflower observed.
Dwarf Larkspur – Delphinium tricorne – Unusual blue form along Sitton Gulch Trail side loop
The rest of the story…
Several days of warm weather over the past couple of weeks, as well as some sunshine, something we missed in early February, has brought about the beginning of the wildflowers at The Pocket at Pigeon Mountain.
Hepatica nobilis - 02/28/2010
To avoid crowds like those that were on the Shirley Miller Trail at The Pocket on Pigeon Mountain last week, I headed down there early Saturday morning, arriving at the parking area shortly after 8 AM. The sky was overcast, but the wind was low – a good situation for wildflower photography. My first stop was the dogwood tree beside the parking area.
Due to rain and obligations, it had been 9 days since I’d been down to The Pocket at Pigeon Mountain. Today was the Chattanooga Valley Presbyterian Church’s Keen-agers’ annual (I think) wildflower hike at The Pocket, so at 10 AM I joined the other folks in my age group at the church, and soon we headed on down to Pigeon Mountain. I returned from the hike with 381 photographs; two of them with people in them. After an initial run through the photographs, I’ve deleted about 150 of them; both photos of people remain.
Long-Spurred Violet
I only have time for a quick post, so I’ll list what I found… Continue reading
Spring Beauty
Six days since I had been up to The Pocket. The rain broke during church, so after the church lunch I headed down to check out the wildflowers. The Spring Beauty is currently the dominant flower in terms of number in bloom; they are everywhere. Continue reading
OK, maybe I can be a little obsessive with some things. It was cold, but Sam agreed to run down to The Pocket with me so I wouldn’t miss something at its early stages. I’m really hoping to get photos of most of the wildflowers at The Pocket at several different stages in their development. It had only been a few days, but things had changed. Continue reading
Friday the 13th; it had been a warm week, so I wanted to see how things were developing at The Pocket, so Cindy and I made the trip down there. Many more fresh leaves that I recognized had sprung up, and the Toothworts now wore more than just buds. Continue reading