A couple dozen of us Georgia Botanical Society members were botanizing along the Springhouse Trail at Black Rock Mountain State Park in North Georgia’s Rabun County last weekend when a collective “oooh” went up from the folks in front of me. “Turk’s-cap lilies,” someone said.
Sure enough, in a sunny clearing just ahead of us was a profusion of large, bright, speckled orange flowers — the blooms of the Turk’s-cap lily, one of Georgia’s showiest native wildflowers. To me, if any wildflower says “it’s mid-summer in Georgia,” it’s the Turk’s-cap.
Its striking, odd-shaped flowers make it impossible to overlook. Their shape resembles the bulbous turbans worn by some Turks in ages past, hence the plant’s name. More than 20 blooms, dangling like graceful pendants, may be found on a single plant, which can grow 4-9 feet tall.
Turk’s-cap lilies bloom July to September in cove forests and moist meadows, on slopes and along streams and roadsides, mostly in North Georgia’s mountains, but also in some Piedmont and coastal plain counties. (A close cousin, the Carolina lily, is less common in the state.)
The Turk’s-cap readily attracts bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Indeed, we paused to snap photos of Eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies sipping nectar from the flowers. The yellow-and-black creatures added their own dash of color to the bright orange blooms, a breathtaking sight.
Our leader was Linda Chafin, author of the new book “Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Georgia.” Some of the other summer wildflowers that she pointed out along the trail included Indian pipe, which lacks green chlorophyll and relies on a ground fungus for nutrients; and beggar lice, whose pink flowers of summer will become the familiar seed pods in fall that stick to fur and clothing.
In the sky: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: One of the brightest and most popular meteor showers of the year, the Perseid, will be visible next week, reaching a peak of more than 50 meteors per hour Aug. 12. For best views, look to the northeast from 2 a.m. until dawn.
The moon will be first-quarter Wednesday. Mercury and Venus are low in the west, Mars and Jupiter are in the southwest and Saturn is high in the west around nightfall.
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