What’s that Flower: Snead Farm Loop Part 6
By Richard Stromberg
[continued from last month]
This is a description of some of the plants to look for as you hike the Snead Farm loop in the North Section of SNP. Starting from the Dickey Ridge Picnic Area in SNP, this is a three-mile hike with 500 feet elevation gain.
At the junction of Dickey Ridge and Snead Farm Trail, turn left onto Snead Farm Trail. Elongated yellow Perfoliate Bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata) flowers seem to hang from the middle of leaves in spring. You may see Pawpaw flowers on small trees (Asimima triloba), fruits to follow in the fall. Under the doubly-divided leaves of Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulus), each plant has a ball of flowers arising from the ground with no leaves on the flower stem. Just before the trail emerges from the woods at the white Snead Farm barn are Red Currant (Ribes rubrum) bushes left from the old farmstead. Strings of small, yellow, five-petaled flowers become strings of green berries that ripen red. The Currants are being overgrown by invasive Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora).
Following Snead Farm Road back to Skyline Drive, you will see the buildings of Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute across the valley. Many invasives thrive along this road, but look for Miami Mist (Phacelia purshii). It is common in southwest Virginia but known north of Rockbridge County only in Arlington and this population.
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