Plants of North Carolina Gallery

17. Though endemic to the American Southeast, Fraser firs are well known more broadly as one of the most widely grown and sold Christmas trees Firs can be distinguished from spruces by their blunt-tipped needles.

16. The quick and the dead. At higher elevations in the park, stands of Fraser fir (Abies fraseri) reeveal one of the saddest stories of tree-community decline in North America. An infestation of the balsam woolly adelgid insect, which began approximately half a century ago, has claimed literally millions of these conifers. Here, in the Clingmans Dome parking area, young Fraser firs stand in a grim matrix of their dead predecessors.

18. Another "bay" that isn't, really. Rosebay --Rhododendron maximum, one of the grandest members of the Heath Family -- is shown here at the height of its midsummer glory. The genus Rhododendron is a big one, with species native to both the Old World and New.

19. Michaux's saxifrage (Saxifraga michauxii) adorning an outcrop on the edge of the Clingmans Dome lot. This dimin-utive and rather succulent wildflower commemorates the great French field botanist Andre Michaux, who explored newly establish United States in the late 1700s.

20. Slow and methodical progress along the Blue Ridge Parkway rewards the naturalist and geologist in any season the road is open, but in late July and early August one can enjoy the dramatic flowering of this showy ericad (i.e., Heath Family species) -- sorrel tree, or Oxydendrum arboreum.

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Click on the locales you'd like to see:

- Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge (Carteret County)

- Cliffs of the Neuse State Park (Wayne County)

- Croatan National Forest (Carteret, Craven, & Jones Counties)

- Fort Macon State Park (Carteret County)

- Great Smoky Mountains National Park

- Pisgah National Forest (various western counties)

- Waterrock Knob (Jackson County)

2. Even an experienced field botanist not already familiar with this species can be hoodwinked by it. At first glance, this woodland resident, Elephantopus tomentosus, appears to be a member of the four-o-clock or pink families. In fact, it is a composite -- a member of the aster family.

1. One of the most eye-catching late-summer wildflowers near the tidal zone and beach dunes is saltmarsh morning-glory, Ipomoea sagittata. This plant was photographed just down the road from the Ocracoke Island ferry terminal.

3. A lovely view of a salt marsh from the Cedar Point Tideland Trail boardwalk. The dead and dying trees in the background are loblolly pines (Pinus taeda), which bore the brunt of Hurricane Gloria in 1985. In the foreground, thriving, salt-tolerant stands of smooth cordgrass --Spartina alternifolia, lower and light green -- and what appears to be black needle rush (Juncus roemerianus, the darker and taller plants farther back).

7. A leafy branch of sweet bay -- not a true bay tree at all, but Magnolia virginiana -- also along the Cedar Point Trail. This species is one of the characteristic trees of the Southeastern Coastal Plain.

6. What's lurking in the branches of this live oak (Quercus virginiana) along the Cedar Point Trail? It's the foliose lichen Parmotrema perforata. It is ephiphytic -- meaning it's hitching a free ride on a tree branch -- but that doesn't mean that it's parasitic.

8. Along Great Lake Road, in the Pond Pine Wilderness section of Croatan. And sure enough, pond pines (Pinus serotina) loom in the middle foreground, on the edge of pocosin (pronounced puh-KOH-sin) -- a Coastal Plain bog dominated by shrubs or pines.

10. This park, best known for its Civil War fortifications, is also an excellent introduction to barrier-island botany. Here, in a damp, protected spot a little inland from the beach, grows a swamp redbay tree (Persea palustris), one of North America's Laurel Family members,

9. Another pocosin view in the Pond Pine Wilderness. As with all good bogs everywhere -- meaning real bogs, as ecologists define them -- pocosins have waterlogged soil that is almost completely composed of organic matter.

12. One of the hardy pioneers of the barrier-island beach is the sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium). This is one of the coastal grass-family species that has the ability to thrive in very exposed habitats with sandy substrates.

15. And another wildflower of the foredunes: Heterotheca subaxillaris. This is one of several Aster Family species in North America that goes by the common name of camphorweed -- no doubt because of the resinous, aromatic glands on its leaves. It is notable in that its flowering heads produce two different types of achenes (fruit).

21. One inflorescence of the sorrel tree shown in the preceding photo. Note that the individual flowers are tiny and urn-shaped -- a characteristic found in many other ericads, too.

22. This mountain, which looms above a Blue Ridge Parkway visitor center, has a hiking trail to its summit. Along the way are various botnaical treasures. This pale orange web of leafless stems that is draped so untidily over other growth may not seem to be one of them, but in its own way it truly is. This is the highly evolved, parasitic flowering plant called dodder. This species is apparently Cuscuta gronovii. Receiving all its nourishment from its unwilling hosts, it has no need for chlorophyll or photosynthesis.

23. Solidago glomerata, one of the most beautiful yet geographically restricted of the goldenrods. It is only found in the highlands of westernmost North Carolina and easternmost Tennessee.

24. If the goldenrod in the preceding photo has a decidedly small range, this species does not. It is a robust form of white snakeroot, Eupatorium rugosum. Some authorities might well assign this plant to the variety roanense, as well. Regardless of the exact interpretation, it is a plant well known for its toxicity, which causes the disease known as trembles in grazing cattle and milk sickness in human beings.

26. Liles in the mist. Framed by a dark mass of living and dead Fraser firs, one of the eastern states' showiest wildflowers, Turk's-cap lily (Lilium superbum), blooms at the beginning of August.

27. A close-up of the same plants. A superb lily, indeed. True lilies such as this have petals and sepals that are virtually indistinguishable. Botanists call these look-alike floral parts tepals.