Wildflowers of the Great Smoky Mountains facts for kids

More than 1400 species of wildflowers are native to the Great Smoky Mountains. Every spring in late April Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the site of the week-long annual spring wildflower pilgrimage to celebrate this diversity. The park is also the site of the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory to inventory all the living organisms in the park. This article lists some of these Wildflowers of the Great Smoky Mountains and references sites for further research.

Threats

Plant poaching is a major threat in the park. In particular, ginseng is a popular target. Removal of specimens such as trilliums and orchids for private gardens is also threatening these populations. The hemlock woolly adelgid has destroyed most of the hemlocks within the park. The Emerald ash borer is also very destructive of native tree species.

Air pollution is also injurious to native plant populations in the park.

Examples

Image	Latin name	Common names
	Aquilegia	Granny's bonnet or Columbine
	Asclepias quadrifolia	Fourleaf milkweed or whorled milkweed
	Carex plantaginea	seersucker sedge or plaintainleaf sedge
	Caulophyllum thalictroides	Blue cohosh
	Chamaelirium	Blazing-star, Devil's bit, False unicorn, Fairy wand, or Helonias
	Claytonia virginica	Eastern spring beauty, Virginia spring beauty, or fairy spud
	Clintonia alleghaniensis	White Clintonia, Clinton's Lilly, Speckled Wood Lily
	Conopholis americana	Squawroot
	Cymophyllus fraserianus	Fraser's sedge
	Cypripedioideae	Yellow Lady Slippers
	Delphinium tricorne	Dwarf larkspur
	Dicentra canadensis	Squirrel Corn
	Dicentra cucullaria	Dutchman's Breeches
	Dicentra eximia	Bleeding heart
	Diervilla sessilifolia	southern bush honeysuckle
	Diphylleia cymosa
	Dodecatheon meadia	Shooting stars
	Epigaea repens	mayflower or trailing arbutus
	Euonymus obovatus	Running strawberry bush
	Hexastylis arifolia	little brown jug
	Hexastylis virginica	Virginia heartleaf
	Iris cristata	Dwarf Crested Iris or Crested Iris
	Lycopus americanus	Water horehound
	Maianthemum racemosum	Treacleberry or feathery false lily of the valley
	Micranthes micranthidifolia	Lettuceleaf saxifrag, branch lettuce, or brook lettuce
	Mitchella repens	Partridge berry or squaw vine
	Monarda didyma	Bee balm
	Monotropsis odorata	Sweet pinesap or pygmy pipes
	Osmorhiza claytonii	Clayton's sweetroot
	Oxalis montana	mountain woodsorrel, wood shamrock, sours, white woodsorrel
	Panax quinquefolius	American ginseng
	Penstemon canescens	Eastern gray beardtongue
	Phacelia bipinnatifida	Fernleaf phacelia, or spotted phacelia
	Phacelia fimbriata	Fringed phacelia
	Phacelia purshii	Miami mist
	Prosartes lanuginosa	Yellow mandarin, or yellow fairybells
	Prosartes maculata	yellow mandarin, spotted mandarin, or nodding mandarin
	Rhododendron calendulaceum	Flame azalea
	Rugelia nudicaulis	Rugel's Indian plantain or Rugels ragwort
	Sanicula smallii	Small's blacksnakeroot
	Sedum	Stonecrop
	Stachys clingmanii	Clingman's hedgenettle
	Synandra hispidula	Guyandotte beauty
	Thalictrum dioicum	Quicksilver-weed
	Thalictrum thalictroides	Rue anemone
	Trillium catesbaei	Bashful wakerobin or rosy wake-robin
	Trillium luteum	Yellow wakerobin or yellow trillium
	Trillium vaseyi	Sweet wakerobin or sweet beth
	Viola appalachiensis	Appalachian blue violet, Appalachian violet, or Henry's violet
	Viola pedata	Birdsfoot violet, bird's-foot violet, or mountain pansy
	Viola rotundifolia	roundleaf yellow violet
	Xanthorhiza simplicissima	Yellowroot

Resources

• Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers: When & Where to Find Them (Paperback)by Carlos C. Campbell, Aaron J. Sharp, Robert W. Hutson, William F. Hutson, Windy Pines Pub,(April 1996),ISBN: 0-9643417-3-5
• Wildflowers Of Tennessee, The Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians (Paperback)by Dennis Horn and Tavia Cathcart, Lone Pine Publishing (2005), ISBN: 1-55105-428-0