Colorful fall wildflowers in the upstate of South Carolina — 2015-10-24

Fall wildflowers always seem to amaze me, just like the colorful fall leaves. I’ve seen them every year since I can remember, but their color and form strike me with joy as if I’m seeing them for the first time. Like other folks, I will drive out of my way — sometimes a great distance — to see the fall leaves in the mountains. Fortunately, I don’t live very far from some good fall viewing sites.

This year, however, I am concentrating on the autumn wildflowers, and we have more than a few beauties in some of our South Carolina state heritage preserves. The first one that comes to mind is Gentiana saponaria or Harvest Bells, also called Soapwort Gentian. It got the latter common name for its resemblance to a plant that produces a soapy residue when it is crushed and rubbed. The following is an image of a plant I photographed today against a backdrop of oak leaves which are wearing their bright red fall colors:

Harvest Bells

I’ve seen this particular Gentian species in the preserve for the past few years. They always seem to appear this time of year as if by magic. The plants are quite unremarkable until they bloom, and they blend in with other green vegetation in the damp forests of the Southern Appalachian mountains. These plants prefer dappled sunlight which they can find even in these old forests. My experience shows that they prefer to grow near a water source such as a stream or wet ditch. On this trip, I found about a dozen plants, most of them growing along a shallow ditch bank. Oddly though, I was just at this very site last week, and I didn’t see them — because they were not yet flowering. Those bright, sky-blue flowers are quite easy to spot against the brightly colored leaves that have fallen to the ground. Here are a few more shots of the Harvest Bells I found in the preserve:

This is about as open as the flowers get, allowing only the strongest bumble bees entry to the flower’s pollen. Having said that, I did photograph one flower at this site a few years ago which was open at the top. I suspect that a bee had just visited it and temporarily “stretched” the petals apart.

In my search for additional Harvest Bells to photograph, I wandered into an opening next to a stream. There, in the sunlight, were the remaining flowers of what had been a mass blooming of what I’m calling (for the time being) Coreopsis grandiflora or Largeflower Tickseed [see update below]. I did not check the leaves of the plant, so I am rather unsure of my identification. The plant key states Largeflower Tickseed has yellow ray flowers and yellow disc flowers (the center of the flower), but this particular one obviously does not. So, dear reader, if you have any ideas as to the identification of this flower, I will be happy to post a correction. Perhaps it cannot be correctly identified by the flower, alone. In any case, here are a couple of images of two flowers that were still open — the rest being way past peak bloom, probably at peak in September:

Update: 2015-10-25. After returning to the site this morning and taking a closer look at the plant’s characteristics, I believe this is Coreopsis gladiata or Coastal plain Tickseed. What threw me about this identification at the outset was the fact that this is generally known as a coastal plains species. However, it can rarely be found in the mountains, as well. Thanks to Edwin Bridges for suggesting this identification. And thanks to the other readers for their suggestions both in the comments section as well as offline.

Just down the stream bank a bit were the sparking white, star-shaped flowers of Parnassia grandifolia or Large-leaf Grass-of-Parnassus. I had photographed this species recently in northern Georgia, but I’m always impressed by the intricate veining in its petals. This is a truly delightful flower to come across in the fall:

After finishing with these beauties, I decided to check out another section of the preserve which I’ve never visited in October. It was back down the road a bit, so I packed up my gear and headed back to the truck. I wanted to see if there were any surprises in store at that location. On the way back to the truck, I kept noticing the winter leaves of a native orchid, Tipularia discolor or Crane-fly orchid. The plant’s single leaf comes out of the ground in September so that it can make the best use of available light in the woods when the leaves fall to the ground, opening the forest floor to winter sunlight. That’s a pretty good strategy if you can get away with it. It’s always a refreshing sight for me to see these leaves scattered here and there, knowing that there will be orchid flowers the following July-August. Here is a shot of the wrinkled/warty leaves of this strange native orchid:

These leaves will be withered and will disappear by the time the plant sends up it spike of flowers.

Near the orchid leaves, I saw another sure sign of fall — the bright red leaves of Parthenocissus quinquefolia or Virginia Creeper. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been told to avoid touching this plant because it might be toxic. But I always quote the old saying, “Leaves of three, let them be… Leaves of five, let them thrive!” It’s the leaves of three that belong to Poison Ivy and Poison Oak that are problematic. A couple of years ago, I found a Virginia Creeper plant growing next to my house. I let it grow onto the brick wall, thinking I’d have a beautiful and colorful showing in the fall, but for some reason, the leaves did not turn bright red as in the following image, so I pulled the vine down this past week.

On to the second site in the preserve… I parked the truck and walked the short distance into the site, thinking that I would probably not find anything interesting. Even the numerous Asters were fading and not very photogenic. I reached the spot where the woods open up onto a bald of granite, and it was obvious that I was very wrong in my speculation. Here were hundreds of Spiranthes cernua or Nodding Ladies’-tresses orchids. Let this be a lesson to me: Don’t assume that just because a location provides beautiful wildflowers in spring and summer, it won’t also surprise me in the fall!

The tiny white orchid flowers are on stems about 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) tall. They were scattered over a large area in thick grass. I wanted to get a distant shot of the area, but the flowers would not have shown up very well in the light-colored, dead grass. However, I did manage to get some fairly detailed shots of a number of the orchid plants:

What a pleasant surprise! I hope these do well at this site, and I hope that they will bloom again next October.

This was just a brief visit to a local wildflower location which provides plenty for the observer to see in just about any season. Like Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot just by watching…”. I found orchids and other beautiful wildflowers and spent only a couple of hours in the woods. I’ll bet there is a special place very near you where, with a bit of time and planning, you can do the same. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?

–Jim