Wildflowers of Stone Mountain: a field guide

Introduction

We go to Stone Mountain Park to see and visit the interesting man-made attractions for which it is justifiably famous. Many of us, however, are unaware of Stone Mountain’s natural attractions – the vast array of living jewels tucked along the streams, lakes, roads, and forest paths. The amazing diversity of plant life within the park’s thirty-two hundred acres is due to the wide variety of habitats that can be found there – old-growth mesic forest, hardwood and mixed pine/hardwood forest, granite flatrock outcrops, pond/lake edge areas, streams, solution pits, and depression pools harboring micro-habitats. Although man’s intervention has introduced a few non-native species like the cultivated azaleas in the Nature Garden and the English Ivy growing along the nature trails, most species in the park are native and common to the Southern Appalachians. There are also a number of rare plant species found in few other places in the world. Although the park is graced with beauty year-round, spring, with its carpets of Trout Lilies, Bloodroot, and violets, and autumn, when rivers of Yellow Daises flow past islands of Blazing Star, are the two seasons offering the wildflower enthusiast the greatest opportunity for delightful discovery. With this guide, we hope to share Stone Mountain’s gorgeous array of wildflowers with you, whether you are taking an armchair tour or you want to identify the flowers you see as you walk through the park.

The guide is organized by color. Flowers of similar color are grouped together. A color bar matching the flower’s color runs along the top of the page.

– Larry and Julie Winslett
Stone Mountain, Georgia