Fall Flower Foray
Date and Time
Wednesday Sep 10, 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM EDT
Fees/Admission
This volunteer opportunity is free and open to the public. Registration is not required to attend, but is suggested so you receive communications around weather-related delays or other scheduling considerations. We suggest bringing water, sun protection, bug protection, and any personal naturalist tools you may want such as field guides, notebooks, hand lenses, etc. We also suggest wearing sturdy, closed-toed shoes plus long sleeves and pants. Read more about the WNC Wildseed Library program here, including how to join our volunteer list.
Description
The WNC Wildseed Library is a Mainspring volunteer program that seeks to connect people to the natural heritage of the Southern Blue Ridge by providing native seeds and information on how to grow them. We place an emphasis on collecting these seeds from wild plants growing locally, which means we need to head out into the woods to find the plants! Join us for a foray into a mid-elevation field near Bryson City to discover the beautiful flowers that may be growing wild there. This is a great opportunity to practice or start to develop your plant identification skills; we will bring identification resources and walk through the identification process together. We hope to find garden-suitable species with high wildlife value like Wreath Goldenrod (Solidago caesia), Rough-Leafed Goldenrod (Solidago patula), Wrinkle-Leafed Goldenrod (Solidago rugosa), Calico Aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum), and more.
We will meet off Conoleys Creek Forest Service Road in Big Laurel just before 5:00pm on Wednesday, September 10th. See the map below for exact location. We will be back at our cars by 7:30pm. Please note that to access this location, participants will need to forge a small creek. Water is generally less than 2 feet deep, and a passenger car with moderate clearance such as a Subaru can handle this crossing with no issues. We may be wandering along the Forest Service road, primitive trails, or bushwhacking during this volunteer event.
