Joe Pye Weed, Eupatorium fistulosum and a view.
Rattlesnake Plantain, Goodyera pubescens is actually an orchid and I have patches of it growing on my hillside of dying Hemlocks.
Looking Glass Rock
I am still trying to come to terms with the haze and the thick grey skies that seem to abound on what are supposed to be sunny days.
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8 comments:
All that land without people! It just goes on and on. I never sensed that when I was anywhere in Georgia. Nowhere I went ever felt truly remote.
The haze comes from all those plants, right? Giving off volatile organic molecules that condense in the air with dust and water. I think Reagan said something about trees causing smog. I'm just like Reagan.
Did you know all these plants or are you learning them quickly?
I think it's amazing that lilies grow wild. For some reason, I just can't accept that easily. We have native lilies in CA too, but I've never seen them in the wild. The California tiger lilies are Lilium pardilinum. 3-8' tall with up to 30 pendant blossoms. I grew some from seed. Yay, me!
Sunset calls that Joe Pye Weed Eupatropium purpureum. Not that I'm quibbling. "A clump of hollow stems set with tiered whorls of strongly toothed leaves to a foot long. Leaves have a vanilla scent when bruised." Cool.
All that haze---there's a reason those mountains are called the Smokies.
But I think they're beautiful.
I love the picture of the Joe Pye Weed with a view.
I am so near the Pisgah National Forest and Smoky Mountain National Park that it is easy to get to the land without people's houses. It is also fairly rural here. Back before "The View" people did not build their houses on the mountain. They lived in the fertile valleys.
I am re-learning a lot of these plants since I grew up and went to school in the south. I am learning lot's of new ones too.
The Eupatorium fistulosum looked closest to the wild weed. The other choices were the E. purpureum and E. maculatum. Apparently Joe Pye had a lot of inbred cousins.
There is some debate about the haze. The resident gardeners say it has been getting worse and blame it on the mid-west states. I don't know enough about the smoke of the Smokies to know the origins and cause of the namesake. If Reagan is right, it could be worse because more land has returned to forest as farming has dwindled.
Gorgeous photos! I look forward to seeing what the sky looks like in winter - that is when we get our prettiest ones up here in Md.
The tiger lilies are the old passalong that came from China originally, aren't they? I guess they're like the orange daylilies, under cultivation so long that they live wherever people have lived for any length of time.
They've been growing in my mom's neighborhood for over 60 years with no real care.
I don't know how close we got to Looking Glass Rock when we lived in South Carolina - I do remember going to Toxaway Falls. That view is wonderful, Christopher.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Annie now I am not sure if all these lilies are not Lilium superbum, a native lily, instead of L. lancifolium. The flowers and growth habit are nearly identical. It would not surprise me if they have cross bred with each other.
Yes these views are up there with the worlds best.
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