September 15th, 2012. After driving
over Patterson Gap Road in the Chattahoochee National Forest, we turned off
Persimmon Road and drove up the Coleman River Road as far as we could. This
road, also, is graveled and is in reasonably good condition to the Coleman
River crossing. It also has suffered water erosion to produce some rough
sections in spots. It didn’t have the variety of wildflowers we encountered on
the Patterson Gap Road but did have some interesting features.
It would have been easy to miss
them. Here they are growing in the pine needles in the open at the edge of a
gravel road. (We also found another cluster in Rabun County also growing at the
edge of a gravel road rather then in leaf litter in the woods.
Closer views of the cluster. It was
cloudy and the colors were muted
The sun broke through the clouds
for a short time and highlighted the flowers.
Close-up views of some flowers, and…
the mature yellow anthers.
And lastly, the Indianpipe's view of the world. I can see
why these are called Indianpipes but they looked more like a group of ghost
elders convening a meeting in the woods.
Monotropa uniflora (Indianpipe, Ghost Flower) is native to
the United States where it’s been documented in most states in the continental
U. S. except for South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and
Arizona. In Georgia, it’s been documented in a number of counties throughout
the state.
Click
on an image to view a larger image
Identification Resources:
Southeastern Flora: Monotropa uniflora (Indianpipes)
Natural
and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Monotropa uniflora (Indian Pipes, Ghost Flower)Missouri Plants: Monotropa uniflora
Distribution:
United
States Department of Agriculture Plants Database: Monotropa uniflora (Indianpipe)
Related
post:
No comments:
Post a Comment