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Comments are encouraged and appreciated. We are amateur botanist, and we do make mistakes sometimes with our identifications. We strive to make this a good identifying resource. All comments are moderated by me and may take several days to appear. This is due to the high number of inappropriate comments that have nothing to do with this subject.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Standing Stone State Park




I hope everyone got to visit one of our state parks here in Tennessee this last weekend. A lot of them were having their spring nature celebrations. Judy and I were lucky and were invited to Standing Stone State Park's 12th Annual Spring Nature Rally where I led two wildflower/photography field trips. I did my best to share my knowledge of wildflower photography and wildflower identification with two great groups of visitors. I really want to thank Rangers Stevie Plumlee and Shawn Hughes for the invitation. We hope to make this an annual event for Judy and me.

Standing Stone State Park is one of Judy's and my favorite parks. It is a beautiful place with spectacular wildflower displays. They have many trails that afford majestic views of what nature has to offer. The trails are easy. One of the best trails is to just walk the road that leads to Overton Lodge. The sides of the road are covered with many varieties of Tennessee native wildflowers.
 
Just to name a very few of the flowers you may see are: (Actaea pachypoda) Doll's Eyes, (Anemonella thalictroides) Rue Anemone, (Antennaria plantaginifolia) Plantain-Leaf Pussytoes, (Antennaria solitaria) Solitary Pussytoes, (Caulophyllum thalictroides) Blue Cohosh, (Claytonia virginica) Spring Beauty, (Dentaria multifida) Fine-Leaf Toothwort, (Erythronium americanum) Yellow Trout Lily, (Frasera caroliniensis) American Columbo, (Iris cristata) Dwarf Crested Iris, (Mertensia virginica) Virginia Bluebell, (Sedum ternatum) Mountain Stonecrop, (Trillium sulcatum) Southern Red Trillium, (Trillium recurvatum) Prairie Trillium, and (Trillium luteum) Yellow Trillium only to name a few. I took pictures of over 40 different species of wildflowers on this trip alone. Park naturalist Jonathan Williams was very helpful with identification and facts about the native wildflowers. Ranger Stevie Plumlee, who has become a great friend of mine, also accompanied me on several hikes to provide interesting information about the native wildflowers.


At the end of the day after all the events were over, we were treated with a great supper of Ranger Travis Stover's famous smoked Boston Butt pulled pork BBQ, hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the fixins including some of Travis's great homemade slaw! Travis, I am still waiting for your slaw recipe!

Judy and I brought our camper and stayed the weekend. We have camped there numerous times and it is one of our go-to places. There are a lot of camper/rv sites with water and electric hookups.  Alli Baltimore (engaged to Travis) will great you when you arrive and get you all fixed up. Let's not forget Ranger Chris Cole, who was a great help to me when we arrived.

Judy and I thank you very much and, who knows, we may be back for fall pictures! Over the next few days I will be posting some wildflower pictures from this trip.

photos, by George




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