Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata) is a large, bushy plant with many small flowers. It favors fields, roadsides, and open woods. The picture above was taken along the Cades Cove Loop Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The image picture was in the Greenbrier section along Porters Creek Trail. Look for Flowering Spurge in…
We’ll spend this week catching up on our review of the summer wildflowers found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Pale Jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) is also known as Pale Touch-Me-Not. This is a large plant, up to six feet, favoring moist, shady wooded areas. The name Jewelweed refers to its habit of accumulating water…
Smooth Creeping Bush Clover (Lespedeza repens) is a trailing, ground-hugging, member of the pea family that adds a beautiful accent to the dry woods of summer. The pictures here were taken along Porters Creek Trail in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Please stop in and visit me to see the…
If you drive into some of the less traveled areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, such as Greenbrier or Tremont, eventually the road turns to gravel, and in summer you will start to see large quantities of butterflies. So many that sometimes it’s hard to keep from running them over. The swallowtail above…
Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) is a tall, single-stalk summer wildflower, blooming during late-summer in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It favors moist streambanks and roadsides. The pictures here were taken along the Greenbrier Road. The Latin name siphilitica refers to the use of this plant as a treatment for syphilis. Please stop in…
Southern Harebell (Campanula divaricata) inhabits dry, rocky slopes, trailside or roadside. The blooming period in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is from July to October. Unless you are carefully examining your surroundings, you may miss this delicate beauty. The plant is a foot or two tall, with tiny light blue blooms raining down from…
Loomis Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum loomisii) is distinctive due to the appearance of being dusted with white powder around the bloom and upper leaves. The name Pycnanthemum means “compact flower,” referring to the dense flowering heads common to the mints. This is a common roadside plant during the summer months. Please stop in and visit me…
The photograph above is the Green Headed, or Cutleaf Coneflower. It blooms all along the roadside in the middle of summer up near Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park . Here’s a fun photo tip for taking a picture like the one above. One of my favorite techniques is to take the photo…
Dan Lawson’s place along the Cades Cove loop road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park dates from 1856. The house is one of the “transitional” structures, featuring hewn logs as well as sawn lumber. The brick chimney, from bricks made on the site, is also unusual and modern. There is a granary (below), a…
This day in 1977 Elvis Presely died at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, TN. Just down the road from Gatlinburg, in Pigeon Forge, the memories live on. It’s a good show there, and never ceases to amaze me how Elvis had so much charisma that over 30 years after his death a man pretending to…
Philosophical Friday here again, and Friday the 13th no less. These pictures of the marvelous old pickup truck resting in glorious decay illustrate the idea that beauty and ugliness do not lie at opposite ends of a spectrum. Rather, there seems to be a circular relationship, where if you start out at beautiful and head…
The Large Leaf Set returned this week to the William Britten Gallery in Gatlinburg. Each of the 4 leaves are printed, mounted on a 3/4″ thick board, and given a coating on the surface that protects and enhances the images. The individual boards measure 16×24″ and the entire set is over 3 feet by 4…
Blackberries are ripening along the Appalachian Trail in the higher elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The image above was taken in the Clingman’s Dome area. Of course, the black bears love blackberries too! Please stop in and visit me to see the complete display of Smoky Mountain Photography at the William Britten…
I can’t seem to get enough of Cades Cove this summer. Maybe it’s due to the renovated loop road. The photograph above was taken along Hyatt Lane, which bisects the loop road in the Cades Cove section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This picture was taken on the same morning as one of…
Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) is a member of the mint family, and as the name implies, holds lots of attraction for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. There is also a purple bee-balm found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The examples above and below were found along the Clingman’s Dome Road, where this wildflower is…
Where does a Smoky Mountain resident go to get miles away? To the beach! The picture above is one of those soft pastel dawns near the ocean. You can almost feel the moist salt breeze. In the distance is the Myrtle Beach skyline, taken from my 11th floor condo balcony, 10 miles to the south…
I live in Gatlinburg TN, on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. The Smokies are a very spiritual place, and I attempt to capture some of that spirit in each of my photographs.
If you are in Gatlinburg, please stop in at my gallery .
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