Georgia

Last weekend, I flew down to Georgia to spend a great weekend with friends. My friend picked me up at the airport and we spent the afternoon in Atlanta at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, went out for a nice dinner and saw a show at the Fox Theater.

Earth Goddess, a plant sculpture at the botanical gardens

My friends have a three-year-old daughter, so we went out for several short hikes in a couple of Georgia state parks (and we went strawberry picking, too!).

We visited Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area. The main attraction of the park is a huge granite monadnock with rare plants growing in the solution pools (called obferkessels) on top of the mountain.

Diamorpha smallii (Red Diamorpha). This little plant is a succulent. It was done blooming for the year. As it gets hot and dry, the plant shrivels up and dries out to survive until the next time it rains.

Opferkessels with D. smallii, and purple Tradescantia virginiana (Spiderwort) on the summit of Arabia Mountain.

 Near the top of the mountain, there was a pool of water. We found salamander eggs (the white shapes in the water above).

A spider riding a leaf in the pool.

A juvenile salamander in the pool.

Minuartia uniflora (Single-flowered Sandwort). This is a rare little plant that is primarily found in the Piedmont of Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

On another short hike, we visited Hard Labor State Park.

A tiny seedling in a nurse log.

A mushroom in the leaf litter.