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A Kind of Retrospective

© Gregg Pasterick

Sunlight has just forced open the clouds, draping itself across the pine trees like the snow that fell before it. Winter has found the Sierra Nevada Mountains not with a vengeance, but with a kind of lazy persistence. Not a polar bear by nature, I turn a blind eye to the Ansel Adams landscape, instead contenting myself with my usual cup of coffee and a stack of colorful, warm wildflower photographs. 2001 was a great year of wildflower discovery for me, and a day like this begs for a retrospective.

Each spring begins like a blank canvas awaiting the first pigments to be applied. For me, in the western North Carolina Mts., those first few brushstrokes were dipped in pinks and blues, the result patches of Henbit, and three varieties of speedwell; Thyme-leaved, Common and Bird’s-eye. These swatches of color said to me, “Yes Virginia, there is a Vernal Equinox”, and rejuvenated my winter-weary spirits. I spent the next three months trawling the Blue Ridge Parkway, in search familiar old faces well as new species of wildflowers. I was not disappointed.

The typical progression of spring blossoms was astounding. I found acre after acre of woodland floor covered with sweet-smelling Carolina Spring-beauties, Wake-Robin and Painted Trillium. Shades of blue and purple bloomed in the form of Bluets, Crested Dwarf Iris, perfumey Showy Orchis, and Bird’s-foot Violets. Yellow and Pink Lady’s-slippers were abundant in out of the way locations, Yellow Trillium grew among pale blue Dog Violets, and the sun dangled from bushes in the form of Flame Azaleas.

As the trees leafed out and the days grew longer I found scarlet Firepinks, pink Hairy Beardtongue, and red Indian Pink in full bloom along roadsides. White and Poke Milkweed attracted butterflies with their sweet nectar, sour tasting Common Wood Sorrel blossomed in the woods and Purple Fringed Orchids stood tall in meadows.

Spring in the mountains of western North Carolina was an Eden of wildflowers; rainbows blossoming in the rich mountain soil. Separated by the ageless prairies of the Central U.S., where Hoary Vervain, Compass Plant and Spider Milkweed grew, a paradise of another sort flourished in the dry soil of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, far from the Carolinas.

Lupines and Pentsemons came in all sizes, colors and hues. Wildfires raged in the form of Paintbrush, covering the arid landscape with bright orange and red. Gaudy Shooting Stars and Lewis’ Monkeyflower gave the ground a pink blush, Great Polemonium blossomed like blue stars, and Alpine and Hiker’s Gentian found wet places to bloom.