What's that Flower?
By Richard Stromberg
The Old Rag loop hike is described on pages 54-57 of PATC’s “Circuit Hikes in Shenandoah National Park” and pages 252-255 of “Appalachian Trail Guide to Shenandoah National Park.” In addition to the challenging rock scrambles and spectacular views, Old Rag offers interesting flowers, some of them found only in rocky places like Old Rag.
This month shows notable plants to be seen in the summer.
Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa) is a perennial that can grow over eight feet tall with flower spikes that can be up to three feet long. They are also called Fairy Candles.
Dwarf Spiraea (Spiraea corymbosa) is a shrub up to one meter tall. Leaves are ovate with toothed edges. The white or pinkish, tightly-packed, quarter-inch flowers grow in a flat or slightly rounded form called a corymb.
Rock Harlequin (Corydalis sempervirens) plants are up to 30 inches tall. The half-inch, tubular flowers are pink with a yellow tip. They are grouped into dangling clusters.
Climbing Fumitory (Adlumia fungosa) is a climbing vine with very slender stems. White or pinkish flowers grow in large, drooping clusters.
Michaux's Saxifrage (Hydatica petiolaris) leaves are all at the base of the plant. Each leaf is thick and shiny, up to six inches long, and has five to eight teeth on each side. The inflorescence is wide and spreading. Each flower has five, long, separated, white petals. Two smaller petals point one way and three larger ones point the other way. The larger petals have two yellow dots at the base. Slender stamen filaments spread brown anthers above the petals.
Mountain Sandwort (Minuartia groenlandica) is a northern species as its species name groenlandica (of Greenland) indicates. It is rare in the PATC area, only found on top of Old Rag Mountain where several clumps of it grow in crevices and sandy pavements. It forms mats of leaves that look like little clumps of grass, but, if you look closely, you will see that the individual leaves are fleshy. Flower stems with up to five flowers extend above the leaves. The half-inch flowers have five white petals.
Some American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) trees on Old Rag are old and strong enough to bear fruit. The flowers are small and cluster on catkins at the end of branches. Long catkins, up to five inches, have only male flowers. Shorter catkins have male flowers at the end and a few, inconspicuous female flowers toward the base. The fruit is a spiky, two-inch ball, starting out green and turning brown when ripe and falling to the ground.
Northern Bush Honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera) is a shrub. The tubes of its yellow flowers are. shorter than other honeysuckles. Five pointed, unequal lobes flare from the tubes.
Whorled Loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia) grows up to three feet tall with a series of whorled leaves spaced up the stem giving. The whorls usually contain four leaves (hence the species name) but sometimes less or more. The leaves have no stem or a very short one. The solitary flowers grow on one-to-two-inch stems from the axils of the upper leaf whorls. The edges of the petals are smooth.
