Members of the Orchid Society of Middle Tennessee joined the Tennessee Native Plant Society on a springtime wildflower hike on the Cumberland Plateau, Saturday, May 1st 2004. The Cumberland Plateau is one of the largest plateaus in the world, ranging over two hundred miles from northern Alabama into southwest Virginia. Although The Plateau has been populated by the white-man for over two hundred years, it is still well-known for its remote wild rivers and forests, and its native flora and fauna. Our hike was six miles long, the Polly Branch Trail down into Scott's Gulf (Gorge). This area is a 10,000 acre tract of land that has recently been donated to the State of Tennessee by the Firestone-Bridgestone Tire Company. Its incredibly beautiful.

OSMT members attending the hike included, from left to right, Ed Merkle, Lydia Merkle, David Merkle, Gregg Zollinger, and Bryan Kurowski.

The night before the hike, we were all concerned the it would not take place because heavy rains and strong thunderstorms were in the forecast. A check of the morning weather radar showed that rain was unlikely, so the hike was all GO.

After a two hour drive east from Nashville, we arrived at the trailhead parking lot at 9:30 AM to rendezvous with the Tennessee Native Plant Society members. The weather was light overcast and the temperature was about 58F.

While we waited for the hike to start, investigations around the parking lot found several plants in bloom, including this sweet-smelling native Pinkster Azalea.

We saw lots of wildflowers along the way such as Yellow Star Grass, Blue-Eyed Grass, Fire Pink, Foam Flower, Jack-in-the Pulpit, Red Trillium, Little Brown Jug, and Wild Geranium. Little Brown Jug is one of my favorites because the torn leaves smell strongly of Root Beer.

Since our desire was to see orchids, I didn't photograph everything along the way. But this small boggy area covering about 400 sqare feet along the path was interesting. In the right foreground is some sphagnum moss. This is the first time I'd seen this plant growing in Tennessee. It occurs only in bogs fed by cold, acidic water. In the background is Swamp Violet, and there were many hundreds of plants in bloom. The bright blue color was startling against the bright green of the moss.

Our second orchid sighting was the Pink Ladyslipper, Cypripedium acaule. Only one single plant was found at this spot. Interestingly, there was a small white moth found sleeping on the pouch. When we found more Pink Ladyslippers later on, we saw many more of these white moths asleep on the orchid's pouches and perhaps this moth serves as a pollinator.

A common flowering shrub along the hike was Carolina Allspice. The odd-looking red flowers give off a wonderful Allspice fragrance when crushed. I enjoy this species so much that I have one of them planted at home outside our front door. It was nice to see them in large numbers out in nature.

In this photo, perhaps you can see how the terrain in the Gulf looks. The tops of the ridges are sandstone with limestone underneath. The trail followed down the gorge wall on the south side, to the bottom where the Caney Fork River runs. As the limestone erodes away, the sandstone falls into the gorge and often the blocks are the size of a house. Broken rock is everywhere, with humus filling in-between. Ferns and wildflowers cover the ground, and the understory includes Allspice, several species of Dogwood, Holly, Mountain Laurel, Ironwood, and Alder. The old growth trees include Sugar Maple, Oaks, Hickory, Hemlocks, and Pine.

The Polly Branch Trail crosses several streams and there are many especially beautiful waterfalls, including this one. The stream beds are lined with slicks of Mountain Laurel about to bloom with their beautiful pink and white flowers.

The most dramatic falls was one that spilled over a ledge, dropping forty feet into a boulder-filled chasm. Huge, ancient Hemlock trees loomed overhead and it was so dark in there that my photograph didn't turn out. But it was beautiful.

The sound of rushing water was everywhere around us. The songs of many species of warblers, vireos, and thrushes were in the trees and understory. Red-Tailed Hawks circled and screeched overhead.

At last, near the bottom of Scott's Gulf, we found the Yellow Ladyslipper orchid, Cypripedium pubescens. This is the only plant of the species we found in bloom. The plants were growing in the rich loamy soil on the flood plain of the nearby small river.

Here's a nice side-view of the other flower.

After finding this orchid, we walked on a little further to a nice place to eat lunch along the Caney Fork River. The river at this point is still small, only about 15 feet across, and crashing around huge boulders and over falls. We had crossed this river several times during the drive over on Interstate 40, where it was about 100 feet across with very deep clear water. The Caney Fork River is well-loved by rafters and kayakers and it is considered to have the best trout fishing in the entire southeast United States.

On our way back up out of the Gulf, several of us decided to take a different trail out, one that ended up at the same parking lot but went along a ridge to the north.

We crossed several more streams, and at one, Gregg spotted this Red Eft. A Red Eft is the young woodland form of the Green Newt, a type of salamander. After the eggs hatch, the babies leave the water for several years to roam the moist woods. They eventually return to the water to mature and spend the rest of their lives. The adults are green with bright yellow bellies and tails like tadpoles. You often see them in aquarium shops. The Efts are harmless, gentle beasts, about two inches long, and are quite startling with their brilliant coloration. After a heavy rainfall you sometimes see hundreds of them emerging from under the leaves and moss.

Along this trail we saw more wild flowers and also came across a very nice fen where dozens of large Ostrich Ferns were growing. This fern grows in the same conditions as Cypripedium reginae, the Showy Ladyslipper orchid. But, despite a good look around, we found no Showy Ladyslipper.

Further on we went through areas of dry pine forest and in some of the more open areas we found these plants of Cypripedium acaule.

There were lots of nice Cyp. acaule waiting for us at several turns in the path, in perfect bloom, many of them growing at the base of the Mountain Laurels.

When we got back to the parking lot, we met up with the others, said our goodbye's, and packed up to leave. It had turned out to be a gorgeous day weatherwise, with temperatures near 70F and the sun broke out of the thin clouds on many occasions. Storm clouds started moving in during our drive back to Nashville, and that night it poured down rain, making for a good nights sleep for weary hikers.