On Saturday, Tim and I left pressing time sheets and tax calculations behind for an afternoon hike at the Ashmore Heritage Preserve and Chandler Heritage Preserve, which are located along Persimmon Ridge Road near Jones Gap State Park. I first visited this area just a few weeks ago with friends and was eager for Tim to see it too. You might notice the photo below is similar to the one posted last week for Wordless Wednesday.
What you can’t see from this photo is the astonishing community of Sarracenia jonesii, commonly called mountain sweet pitcher plant, at the far side of the Preserve’s man-made pond, Lake Wattacoo. Standing 24 to 30-inches tall, the plant produces sweet nectar that attracts insects to its hollow, tubular leaf. Once inside, an insect is trapped by sticky, downward-pointing hairs. When the insect dies at the liquid-filled base of the trap, the plant absorbs nitrogen and other nutrients from its decomposed body.
These highly modified leaves of Sarracenia jonesii, backlit by the afternoon sun, act as pitfall traps.
Other rare plants also survive here. Piedmont ragwort grows on a granite outcrop, and the fire-dependent turkeybeard grows on two pine-dominated ridges.
Further up, on the opposite side of the ridge, the Chandler Heritage Preserve features a half-mile trail that loops past a granite outcrop that provides a distant view of downtown Greenville and then follows the stream back to the road.
Several rare plant species can be found here too (grass-of-Parnassus, Indian paintbrush, and thousand-leaf groundsel) but we were thrilled to discover a much more common wildflower in bloom — the beautiful trout lily. Pollinated by ants, it takes up to seven years for a trout lily to mature and produce a flower. The downward-facing lily is yellow, with three sepals (purplish backs) and three petals (all yellow) which reflex during the day and then close at night.As you would expect in two such moisture rich habitats, we also saw a number mosses and lichens. The pic below shows two species of Cladonia, a genus of moss-like lichens, reindeer moss (C. rangiferina) and British soldiers (C. cristatella).
Have you been hiking lately?
thanks for getting my day off to a wonderful start! What a thrill to see the pitcher plants and trout lily. Hope to get to this location this year. Had not heard of it.
Suzanne
Suzanne–plan a day in Greenville and we’ll take a picnic!
I learn so much from your hikes and your observations. I’m learning to look for beauty in the small places I would have just walked by before with little notice. Thanks.
Gail–Ha! Tim is very patient…you should have seen him on the ground trying to help me get this shot of the trout lily. But sometimes he gets tired of me stopping and poking around. He certainly doesn’t want to know plant names…calls everything variegated bloodroot:^)
Very interesting
Nancy–makes me very excited to think of all that is just ahead!
No, we’ve been decorating! The pitcher plant is amazing and such a lovely colour. Grass of Parnassus grows over here too, we had it beside a lake near to where we lived in the north West of the UK, but have never seen it down in Devon. Erythroniums are such beautiful little plants, we have a few white, yellow and pink in the woodland here, but they don’t seem to flower for very long, have to organise a holiday round them flowering!
Pauline–I have a friend who has a party when his night blooming cercus is going to open its first flowers. Always fun! I can’t wait to hear about the decorating. Do tell!
Vann & I were in Greenville for the day on Saturday. I almost called you to see what you were up to. Thought the tax preparation might be holding you hostage. Absolutely love that you shared this hike! Such beauty & rare gems to behold. Would love to visit this special place
Sharon–sorry I missed you though. It was a beautiful day; hope you had a good time!
What a great place to have within driving distance. Those pitcher plants are a bit creepy, but fascinating.
Jason–only takes about 40 minutes to get there and well worth the drive.
Marian, are you interested in doing a program for Paris Mtn State Park Friends on the 4th Saturday in May. Perhaps you could show the park lovers some neat hikes for the summer. Mary Lou