If there are any two plants that define the beauty, abundance and impressive array of wildflowers found along the Blue Ridge Mountains they would have to be the mountain laurel and rhododendron. Both grow in thickets so dense they can nearly cover entire mountainsides, and indeed they do blanket summits in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Joe Cook and Monica Sheppard
Blooming in late May and into June, Catawba rhododendron (Rhododendron catawbiensis) has pink to deep purple clusters of flowers that are so lush and awe inspiring that they have attracted people from around the world. Hikers trek well over two miles across the Mount Rogers area in southwest Virginia just to be able to enjoy the display of flowers spreading across Rhododendron Gap. A few weeks later, on the higher elevations along the North Carolina-Tennessee border, 1,200 acres of Catawba rhododendrons bloom in a natural garden on the summit of Roan Mountain. This impressive event is celebrated by a festival that has been held each year for many decades now.
If you are outdoors in winter, you can use the plants’ leaves to determine the temperature. In order to protect their soft undersides from the desiccating effects of cool breezes, the leaves begin to droop and curl under. The tighter the curl, the colder it is. When the leaves are wrapped around themselves to about the size of a choice cigar, the temperature is hovering around freezing; the diameter of a cheap cigar means that it is getting into the twenties and the teens. If you are out here when the leaves have become no larger than a cigarette, you better be wearing lots of layers — the temperature is mighty close to zero.
Flower Fast Facts
FLOWER: The light pink to dark pink to rich purple flowers are about two inches across, are open bell-shaped, have five lobes and grow in large and ornate clusters.
LEAVES AND STEM: The distinctive, oblong, shiny, leathery, evergreen leaves, three to five inches long, grow on shrubs that usually range from four to ten feet in height.
BLOOM SEASON: May to June
About This Series
“Mountain Wildflowers” features a wildflower from the Blue Ridge region each month from March to October. Leonard M. Adkins has written for Blue Ridge Country for more than two decades and is the author of 20 books about travel, hiking and nature. His Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail, which received the prestigious National Outdoor Book Award, provides the photographs and some of the information he writes about in each “Mountain Wildflowers.” It and his other works may be obtained through his website.