Visiting the Angus Gholson Nature Park, Chattahoochee, Florida — 2016-02-29

On February 29, Eleanor Dietrich and Virginia Craig joined me on a field trip to the Angus Gholson Nature Park in Chattahoochee, Florida. Eleanor had suggested this location as a good day trip to see a number of spring wildflowers. So we drove up from Eleanor’s home in Tallahassee, Florida where Walter Ezell and I were staying as her guests for a couple of days.

According to alltrails.com:

The Angus Gholson Nature Park is the trailhead of the Angus Gholson Nature Trail. The system consists of three trails, The Angus Gholson Nature Trail, the Muscogee Trail, and the Fitness Trail. Angus Gholson Nature Trail follows ridges and ravines along the Apalachicola River for a short distance while treating hikers to a botanically rich and diverse environment. Varieties of plants are in flower in almost every month of the year. This botanically rich habitat is the home of yellow popular, pignut hickory, sycamore, and Southern magnolia trees. There are also several young torreya trees found on the bluffs along this trail.

Angus Gholson, who spent his life exploring the rugged ravines of the Apalachicola River in search of unusual plants, was a classical botanist with an extensive herbarium, he had a deep appreciation for the rarity of the flora that grows in this most unusual part of Florida, where ravines drop steeply as tributaries cut their way down to the Apalachicola River. Angus passed away in early 2014.

We arrived at the Park early in the morning, and as I got out of the car, I spotted a number of clusters of sky-blue flowers. These belonged to the Salvia lyrata or Lyre leaf Sage plants growing next to the parking lot:

Lyre leaf Sage

Here I was barely out of the car and seeing beautiful wildflowers. Eleanor had promised that we would see a couple of Trillium species and many drifts of Trout Lilies, so I was anxious to get to the trailhead. Just at the entrance to the trailhead, I saw several Trillium plants in full bloom. These were Trillium underwoodii known as Purple Toadshade or Longbract Wakerobin. It seems that each Trillium species has several common names. That’s why it is best, I believe, to use the unique botanical name for accurate identification. I had not seen this species before, so I set up my camera gear while Eleanor and Virginia started down the trail to find more photographic opportunities.

Trillium underwoodii shows many characteristics that are similar to several other sessile -flowered Trillium species. According to Floridata.com (Floridata Plant Encyclopedia), most authorities recognize T. underwoodii as distinct, but closely related to T. cuneatum. The two are very similar and their ranges are adjoining without overlapping. The leaves of Purple Toadshade are mottled dark and light green, with most of the light green down the center (my emphasis). The leaves are 2-4 in (5.1-10.2 cm) long and droop down almost to the ground. The greenish-maroon (sometimes brown or yellow) flower petals stand straight up and never open fully. The flowers have a peculiar spicy fragrance that some find unappealing. Purple Toadshade blooms in very early spring.

I did manage to find one of the scarce, yellow-green flowered forms:

Soon, I joined Eleanor and Virginia down the trail and next to a large population of Erythronium umbilicatum or Dimpled Trout Lily. This plant species got its common name from the dimple at the apex of the fruit. Unfortunately, it was still too early in the morning for the flowers to be fully open (they close in the evening), so Eleanor suggested that we come back after lunch to photograph them. We had a couple of other sites to visit, and one of them was another portion of the Angus Gholson Nature Park. So we took a short drive and arrived at the site.

Virginia had mentioned that one of the primary wildflower species at this location is Trillium lancifolium also known as Lanceleaf Trillium or Narrowleaf Wakerobin. I had photographed it only on one occasion in North Georgia a couple of years ago, so I was excited to be able to see it again. When she pointed out a small patch of them, I remarked that this must be a rare yellow form of this plant, because the flower petals were yellow and not the “normal” brownish-maroon color that I had seen in Georgia. She was surprised since she had seen only this color form… we both learned something new. Here is a shot of one of the plants from the Georgia population:

Here is what the first plant looked like at the Angus Gholson Nature Park site:

Note the difference in both the flower and leaf color. I cannot help but believe that the Narrowleaf Wakerobin plants at this location have a bit of another Trillium species in their DNA — perhaps the local Trillium underwoodii?

Here are a few more shots of the many Narrowleaf Wakerobin plants I photographed at this site. Please note the heavily mottled pattern on the leaves:

Nearby, we saw many small clumps of Cardamine concatanata or Cutleaf Toothwort:

Also in the same area, on the hillside, were scattered blooming plants of Zephyranthes atamasca also known as Rain Lily or Atamasco Lily:

As I was finishing up with the Rain Lilies, I saw some folks at the top of the hill talking to Eleanor and Virginia. Turned out that it was a friend, Dr. Peter Zale, and his buddy, John who had come all the way from Pennsylvania to see these plants. Small world… Peter is the Breeder and Curator of Plants at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. We spent a few minutes chatting about the plants, then headed off for lunch, leaving Peter and John to enjoy the Park.

After lunch, we returned to the Park and headed off to photograph the Trout Lilies — hoping that the flowers would now be open. Well, they were, indeed! Here are some shots of the Trout Lilies we were able to photograph:

Eleanor managed to catch a shot of me photographing some of the Trout Lilies:

What a great day we all had! The wildflowers were in perfect shape, and I managed to photograph one new Trillium species as well as a new color form of another one. On our next adventure, Eleanor, Virginia, and I would visit a location in Chattahoochee for Trillium decipiens or Deceptive Trillium. It is found in only a few scattered locations along the Chattahoochee River (a tributary of the Apalachicola River) in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Stay tuned…

–Jim