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August’s Mountain Wildflower: Trumpet Honeysuckle

Like spotted jewelweed and trumpet tine, the flower’s deep throat and red color make it attractive to ruby-throated hummingbirds, who are its main pollinators.

July’s Mountain Wildflower: Oxeye Daisy

The oxeye daisy is a member of the composite family, which American naturalist Roger Tory Peterson believed to be the most recent one to make its appearance on Earth.

June’s Mountain Wildflower: Mountain Laurel

If you are out in the fall, stop to examine the small capsules on the mountain laurel; these were once the plant’s flowers in May, June, and July.

May’s Mountain Wildflower: Mayapple

Despite its name, the fruit, which looks more like a yellowish-green, egg-shaped berry than an apple, usually does not begin to develop until early to mid-summer.

May’s Wild Edible: White Jelly Snow Fungus

“Pass the fungus,” is not common dinnertime conversation in the Blue Ridge Mountains region, but that’s because folks perhaps have not heard of the white jelly snow fungus.

Current Issue

Trumpet Honeysuckle. Credit Joe Cook

August’s Mountain Wildflower: Trumpet Honeysuckle

Like spotted jewelweed and trumpet tine, the flower’s deep throat and red color make it attractive to ruby-throated hummingbirds, who are its main pollinators.
Oxeye Daisy. Credit Joe Cook and Monica Sheppard

July’s Mountain Wildflower: Oxeye Daisy

The oxeye daisy is a member of the composite family, which American naturalist Roger Tory Peterson believed to be the most recent one to make its appearance on Earth. 
Mountain Laurel. Credit Leonard M. Adkins

June’s Mountain Wildflower: Mountain Laurel

If you are out in the fall, stop to examine the small capsules on the mountain laurel; these were once the plant’s flowers in May, June, and July.
Mayapple. Credit Joe Cook and Monica Sheppard

May’s Mountain Wildflower: Mayapple

Despite its name, the fruit, which looks more like a yellowish-green, egg-shaped berry than an apple, usually does not begin to develop until early to mid-summer.
White jelly snow fungus growing in the author’s Botetourt County, Virginia woodlot.

May’s Wild Edible: White Jelly Snow Fungus

“Pass the fungus,” is not common dinnertime conversation in the Blue Ridge Mountains region, but that’s because folks perhaps have not heard of the white jelly snow fungus.
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Departments

At Coopers Rock State Forest, new Stargazer cabins invite guests to look up through skylights and telescopes.
Country Roads

Even Closer to Almost Heaven

New Stargazer cabins at Coopers Rock State Forest offer a skyward escape in the mountains of West Virginia.

June 29, 2026
©Duncan Seaman
Country Roads

A Mountain Tradition Turns 90 

Visitors flock to Galax, Virginia, each summer for the Old Fiddlers’ Convention, a days-long celebration of Appalachian music.

June 29, 2026
Synchronous Fireflies
Creature Feature

The Light Fantastic

Fireflies are struggling with the effects of artificial light.

June 29, 2026

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