It’s still late winter by the calendar, but I mark the start of Georgia’s glorious spring wildflower season when the trout lilies bloom, which is right now.
Sporting their dazzling, six-petal, nectar-rich yellow flowers as early as mid-February, trout lilies (two species in Georgia) are some of the state’s earliest blooming native wildflowers. Seeing a large patch of them in full flower can be a cure for cabin fever. That’s why the famed Trout Lily Trail in the West Palisades section of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Atlanta has become a spring mecca for many of us wildflower lovers.
The trail takes visitors along Rottenwood Creek where, at this time of year, thousands of dimpled trout lilies (Erythronium umbilicatum) create bright yellow carpets on the hillsides and stream banks. The plants’ brown-mottled leaves resemble a trout’s coloration; hence their name.
Their blooms are reliable indicators that Georgia’s native spring wildflower season has started: Between now and April, other early bloomers will be bursting into riots of stunning color all over the state. The stars of this annual spectacle are the so-called spring ephemerals, which are remarkably colorful, short-lived woodland wildflowers.
The ephemerals pop up — or so it seems — from dormancy in early March and April and bloom for a week or two, then quickly make fruit and set seed. After that, they die back to their underground parts, and, by May, it’s hard to find evidence they ever existed.
In addition to the trout lily, Georgia’s spring ephemerals include bloodroot, toothwort, harbinger of spring, wild geranium, blue cohosh, twinleaf, May-apple, Virginia bluebell, celandine poppy, Dutchman’s breeches, spring beauty, wood anemone, windflower, bleeding heart, phacelia and more.
Ephemerals growing on the forest floor have adapted to the rhythms of the deciduous hardwood trees towering above them. Their blooming in March and April come before the bare tree branches leaf out, thus allowing them sufficient time to absorb sunlight and reproduce. In late spring, when the trees have donned their leafy canopies, the ephemerals return to dormancy instead of struggling to grow in deep shade.
Other early native spring blooms are just as beautiful and short-lived, but botanists don’t consider them ephemerals because their leaves and stems may persist into midsummer. They include most trillium species, violets, jack-in-the-pulpit, hepatica, rue anemone and others.
There are several wild places in Georgia, particularly in the mountains and Piedmont, where many of these early bloomers — ephemerals and otherwise — grow together and present lush, spectacular displays of color. One such place is the Sitton’s Gulch Trail in Cloudland Canyon State Park in Dade County. Another is Sosebee Cove, said to be a botanist’s paradise, in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Union County.
But Georgia’s most magnificent spring wildflower walk may be the Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail that runs through the Pocket at Pigeon Mountain in Walker County. “Many people consider it to be the best wildflower walk in the state from mid-March to mid-April,” say Hugh and Carol Nourse in their book, “Favorite Wildflower Walks in Georgia.”
About three weeks from now, the Pocket will be at its peak with more than 30 species of native wildflowers competing for the spotlight. Their color combinations can be striking. For instance, Virginia bluebells growingwith yellow celandine poppies can be an artist’s ecstasy.
Of course, I have only touched on Georgia’s early spring wildflower splendor. Wildflower hot spots are found all over Georgia in diverse habitats — pine and hardwood forests, meadows, wetlands, stream banks, mountain ridges and coves, granite outcrops and others. They all may harbor an array of spring wildflowers of every hue of the rainbow.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, retired Tellus Science Museum astronomer: Spring begins with the vernal equinox at 10:46 a.m. on March 20. The moon will be last quarter on Wednesday and new on March 19. Over the next two weeks, Venus will be very low in the west just after sunset. Mercury, Mars and Saturn are too close to the sun for easy observation. Jupiter will be high in the south just after dark.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
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