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 spring.
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.
Mountain Sandwort (Minuartia groenlandica) is a northern species as its species name groenlandica (of Greenland) indicates. It is rare in the PATC area, found only 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.
Goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus) has a large, branching pyramid of white flowers atop three-to-seven-foot plants. Individual flowers are very small, petals only one millimeter, but since there are so many flowers, the inflorescence is impressive. The fuzzy nature of the inflorescence gives the impression of a goat’s beard. The plant has only a few leaves. They are divided, often twice.
Whorled Loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia) grows up to three feet tall with a series of whorled leaves spaced up the stem. The whorls usually contain four leaves (hence the species name). 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. They have five yellow petals with red spots at the bottom. Stamens and pistil protruding from the middle of the flower
Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) is a small tree with compound leaves with 9 to 31 leaflets. It has velvety hairs on its branches. It has a pyramid of small green flowers at the top of the plant.
Tall Meadow-rue (Thalictrum pubescens) can reach eight feet tall. The leaves are divided into three leaflets and lower leaves may be divided twice into threes. The leaflets have lobes. Flowers are at the top of the plant. The flower head is a ball of white spikes. It grows in wet places.
Roundleaf Fameflower (Phemeranthus teretifolius) has a ring of leaves at the base of the plant. The leaves are about two inches long and round in cross section. A foot-long stem has two to four flowers forking from the top. Each half-inch flower has five pink petals.
