Blog

Summer Wildflowers in the GSMNP

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) has more kinds of flowering plants than any other North American National Park.  In fact, the GSMNP boasts more than 1,500 varieties of flowers!  

Perhaps the most well-known are the spring ephemerals—so called because they appear in late winter, flower, fruit, and die back within two months.  They emerge beginning in February and are usually gone by the end of June.  Spring wildflower walkers can see lady slippers, fire pinks, columbine, bleeding heart,  jack-in-the-pulpit, little brown jugs, violets and many others.

Summer Wildflowers Are Magnificent

But that doesn’t mean that spring is the only season to view wildflowers.  The display continues with cardinal flowers, pink turtleheads, Turk’s cap lily, small purple-fringed orchids, bee-balm, butterfly weed, black-eyed Susan’s, and jewel weed, among others.

Black-eyed susans bloom during the summer months. Photo by Julie Blake Edison.

Rosebay rhododendron blooms during July in the mid elevations.  In the summer sourwood trees produce their small, bell-shaped white blossoms.  Sourwood honey is prized for its light amber color and flavor of anise and spice.  This tree is only grows in the Eastern mountains.  To connoisseurs, it has a richer and more concentrated flavor than the more common clover or wildflower honey.  Some local eastern Tennessee businesses have sourwood honey for sale.  http://Applebarncidermill.com

Summer wildflower seekers can find beautiful blooms later in the season, well into fall.  Look for goldenrod, sunflowers, iron weed, mountain gentian, monk’s hood, coneflowers, and asters.  Purple Joe-Pye-weed can reach heights of ten feet!  From October through January you can find the yellow blooms of witch-hazel.  The late summer/early fall weather is nice for hiking, and the trails are less crowded after the children have returned to school.

We look forward to seeing you this summer!  And don’t forget that we offer hearty and delicious packed lunches for $12 to fuel you on your wildflower tramp.