Is “stir crazy” one word or two? — 2020-04-15

I thought I would be better at handling being cooped up than I am. Walter Ezell and I are still practicing social distancing from the public as well as limiting our trips to the store, etc., but Spring exerts a very strong pull. We figured that going up to our mountain cabin would be just the thing to take our mind off of these troubling times, and I remembered a spot on a nearby sheltered hillside which is home to thousands of Dicentra cucullaria or Dutchman’s breeches as well as numerous other Spring ephemeral species found in rich cove forests.

Dutchman’s breeches

If you inspect the flowers of Dutchman’s breeches, it is obvious how it got its common name — all those little breeches, as if being placed on a clothesline and drying in the sunshine. There is a bit of a story behind this hillside site. Last year was the first year I had seen these plants in Avery County, North Carolina. About mid-April, we were making a supply visit to our Airbnb rental cabin, which required that we pass by this hillside, which was located just next to a very busy highway. As I am wont to do, I looked over into the dark, sloping creek valley and spotted bits of white, dotted here and there within a carpet of green. I immediately searched for a place to pull off the road so that I could check it out. Finding a suitable spot, I parked and walked toward a place where I could shimmy down the steep slope to get a closer look.

This massive hillside, shaded by deciduous trees which were just beginning to leaf out, stretched up many hundreds of feet, and each square foot was covered in Spring wildflowers! The most obvious of these were the Dutchman’s breeches — in full bloom! On past field trips into the mountains of the Southern Appalachians, I had managed to see only a few scattered clumps of these plants, but here, before me, were an uncountable number, stretching as far as the eye could see. Then and there, I made it a point to come back in subsequent years to spend more time studying the array of flora, hoping to discover additional plant species.

Interesting story:

On this current adventure, it was getting late, and I had decided to come back the next morning to give myself more time to photograph what the hillside had to offer. As we were getting back into the truck, another truck pulled up behind us, and a man got out and walked over to the passenger window. “Can I help you?”, he asked. Well, this could mean only one thing: he was probably the property owner and was questioning our presence on his property. I was correct. We explained about the wildflowers and what a special place it was. I ended up asking if we could have his permission to return the next day to photograph the wildflowers. To my amazement, he said, “Sure.” He also added that this was just a small portion of 350 acres (~150 hectares) that belonged to him, and we were welcome to see it all. How good was that!?! We thanked him and got back onto the road and made our way to the cabin.

The next morning, Walter and I prepared our camera gear (cleaned our lenses, checked to make sure we had camera batteries that were charged) and packed it all in my truck. We made our way back to the site, excited to be able to photograph these tiny wonders of nature.

Upon arriving, we parked off the road in the same place as the day before and found a good spot to access the steeply sloping hillside to begin our photography “assignment”. The flowers were perfect. There were many of the typical Spring wildflowers (more below) found in the damp cove forest. I’m guessing we spent a couple of hours there, choosing from among the many thousands of Spring blooms. As we were finishing up, I heard an agitated voice in the distance: “Hey!”. I looked up and saw a large, bearded young man standing up on the side of the road beside our truck. I figured that he was wondering if we were in any distress, we being prone on the ground with our camera gear.

I got up and walked to the base of the embankment where he stood. I looked up and said “Hey” back to him. His immediate response was, “You are trespassing!”. “Well, that is strange…“, I thought. So I said, “That’s OK, we have permission from the owner to be here.” His response was, “I am the owner, and you do not have my permission to be here.” I told him about meeting the man the day before who identified himself as the property owner, and this young man asked, “What was his name?”. “He didn’t tell me.”, I replied. In my excitement over having the “owner” give us permission to roam his property, I had neglected to ask him his name.

The young man asked me again, “What was his name?”, and my response was the same. By this time, Walter had walked over and joined in the conversation. We told him what we were doing, and I asked him if we could have permission to continue photographing. He told us that he had just had two chainsaws stolen from his porch and that he didn’t want anybody on his property. I asked how far up the highway he owned, because about a half mile up the road, there was another smaller area that contained the same plant communities. He pointed up the road and said, “Up to the curve.”, which unfortunately included that other patch of plants. Fortunately, we were just finishing up with our photography, so I thanked him and told him we were leaving. He turned around and walked off.

What a puzzle! Just who was the real owner? Well, it didn’t matter, since we were done, and we probably didn’t need to come back any time soon. Still, this was a pristine place, and I hate that we would no longer have access to it.

Here are some additional images of the many Dutchman’s breeches we found:

Scattered around and among the Dutchman’s breeches were a number of Trillium erectum or Red Trillium aka Erect Trillium. Many if not most of them were in tight bud, but I did manage to find a few with open flowers:

As is obvious in the latter image, we also found some rather nice Erythronium americanum or American Trout Lily that were in pretty good shape:

Another rather common Spring ephemeral which was just beginning to have open flowers was Tiarella cordifolia or Foam Flower. Its delicate spike of flowers virtually glowed against the dark green of the ground cover:

Nearby, were the shrubby, Caulophyllum thalictroides or Blue Cohosh, just beginning to show open flowers:

We also saw numerous examples of the bright, white Stellaria pubera or Giant Chickweed scattered about:

As the afternoon was nearing, the sunlight had given Claytonia caroliniana or Carolina Springbeauty ample opportunity to begin to open for the day. I’m often disappointed when I cannot remain at a site with these Springbeauty species, long enough for them to receive enough light for the flowers to open:

Here and there on the forest floor were dots of bright yellow — Viola rotundifolia or Roundleaf Yellow Violet:

I was also very pleased to find many clumps of a strange but beautiful wildflower, Mitella diphylla or Twoleaf Miterwort aka Bishop’s Cap. The very delicately reticulated pattern formed by the tiny filaments which make up each petal on the 1/8th-inch-wide (3 mm) flowers, cannot be fully appreciated unless greatly enlarged:

Finally, I just had to photograph the Asarum canadense or Canada Wild Ginger. Normally, its flowers are all but covered up by leaf litter, but these were positioned on a large bed of moss, and their very hairy leaves and flowers presented quite well without much work on my part:

This is a very special place, and we would have been very, very disappointed if we had not been able to capture much of its beauty before being asked to leave the property. There were many other Spring ephemerals on the property — some with flowers not yet open, and some with flowers well past and already producing seed capsules.

After packing our gear and arriving back at the truck, I decided that there was another location I wanted to visit. This location is a large roadside site with a carpet of delicate white flowers under dappled sunlight. I have seen this site each time we come up to the cabin during the Spring. The white flowers are easily visible from the road, and I have thought them to be Phacelia fimbriata or Fringed Phacelia. After finally being able to stop to check them out, I was correct. What I didn’t realize was that the population included many examples of flowers that were not pure white, as I had expected them to be. These flowers showed a delicate blush of lilac color on the petals:

As I indicted earlier, most of the flowers were pure white:

Another fantastic photography day! We completed our “assignment” at this location, packed our gear, and headed back to the truck, thankful that we had not been approached by another landowner. As with the other site, there were no “Posted, No Trespassing” signs at this site, and I would have no intention of breaking the law by crossing the line had there been signs. I’m still puzzled as to who owns the first site we visited, but not puzzled enough to research the matter any further. It is what it is. Hopefully, I can locate other wildflower sites in the area which will allow public access year around.

Currently, one of my most-visited locations in the region, the Blue Ridge Parkway (actually a National Park stretching from extreme western North Carolina, to southern Virginia), is closed until August 13 — 4 months. That is 4 months of prime wildflower blooming season, which we will not be able to regain. It is unfortunate that the Parkway staff is so underfunded and undermanned to the extent that it would be medically dangerous for them to do their jobs properly. I can only dream of the Trilliums, Irises, Azaleas (Rhododendron), Lilies, and the many Spring and Summer Orchids which will go unnoticed to human-kind this year. I’m hoping that it will reopen in time for the Parnassia and the Spiranthes bloom season in the Fall. Here are fingers crossed…

Until our next wildflower adventure, be safe and love one another…

–Jim