Spring Wildflowers of the New River Gorge: Stone Cliff Trail
As winter gives way to spring, wildflowers begin a mad dash to grow and reproduce. Sunlight drives this sudden spurt of flowers, for spring wildflowers must do all their lovely work while the forest is not yet fully leafed out. Spring wildflower plants must grow, blossom, set seed, and store energy for next spring while sunlight still hits the forest floor. The spring flowers cannot flourish on the forest floor if shaded by trees fully leafed out. Thus spring heralds a rush of wildflowers gracing the woodlands of West Virginia. Hepatica First Blooms in Mid-March Here in southern West Virginia, spring wildflowers first begin blooming in mid-March to early April near the bottom of the New River Gorge where it is the warmest. It�s no surprise then that the best place to spot spring wildflowers are on the trails that run along the bottom of the gorge. The National Park Service (NPS) maintains many such trails. In this blog I�d like to feature one of these trails and point out which spring