Spring wildflowers in the Great Smoky Mountains

What it is

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has more than 1,500 kinds of flowering plants, more than any other national park in North America. The best moment is early spring. Before the trees leaf out, light reaches the forest floor and a group of short-lived woodland flowers takes its chance: several species of trillium, spring beauty, trout lily, bloodroot, violets and fringed phacelia, which can whiten a whole slope. Flowering starts in the valleys in late March and climbs the mountains into May. Each spring the park hosts a Wildflower Pilgrimage, several days of guided walks led by botanists.

Before you go

• Mid to late April is the surest time on low and middle elevation trails.
• Walk slowly and look down. Most of these flowers are small and close to the ground.
• Picking or digging any plant in the park is against the law.

The flowers you will see

TrilliumWoodland wildflowers with three-petalled blooms and whorled bractsWhite trilliumA woodland perennial with three-petalled white flowers in springVirginia springbeautyA small pink or white wildflower of eastern North American forests

Also part of it, and being written: Sanguinaria, Erythronium.

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