March Pisgah Flower Tourism

With a small group of 3 hikers, we headed out to do a warm grey day wildflower tour of Mt. Pisgah, leaving the North TH around 11:30 and returning about 2:00pm. Both parking lots were >3/4 full, but the trails didn’t feel crowded. We took Tr #3 to the Quary Road junction and then the road back and using Tr #7 to go from West to North THs. Ended up being ~6.5 miles with <1000 ft elevation gain.

Along the Quary Rd at the “Seep Ponds”, children had made signs to help protect the citizens of those very small ponds.

Birds were out! An impressive list of raptor visual and song ID: Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle, Turkey Vultures, Red-Tail Hawk, and 3 Osprey. First time this season for Harrier, Eagle and Osprey.

Wild flowers were out in even greater numbers – they were hard to miss.

Fawn Lillies (the upside down white flowers) lined the quarry road and their name fits perfectly! The Purple Camus was plentiful along the east side of Tr #3 – like walking thru a field of flowers. The small purple / yellow flowers are Henderson’s Shooting Stars and their pollination method is unique

Pollination — shooting stars use buzz pollination. Only bumblebees with the right wing frequency can vibrate the pollen loose from that anther cone. It’s an exclusive relationship, and watching it happen is worth pausing for on the trail. (Claude.AI)