Rich Mountain and Queen Wilhelmena State Park

Today, a business trip has taken me to western Arkansas.  Nestled in the scenic Ouachita Mountains (pictured above), Queen Wilhelmena State Park (http://www.queenwilhelmina.com/) is located on the top of Rich Mountain, a long, narrow, and steep ridge that runs from western Arkansas into eastern Oklahoma.  I will be here for the next few days providing part of a silviculture training program for US Forest Service silviculturists from across the southeastern US.  Rich Mountain is well-known for its unique flora and fauna, some of which are only found on this long ridge.  I took a walk after arriving at the state park, and boy what a show!  The spring wildflowers are going full-bore; the blog that follows is a partial sample of their glory.

The first picture is that of a rather unusual trillium, the green trillium:

Yes, those are green petals--hence the name!  The flowers pictured below are actually from a small shrub, a type of buckeye (I'm not sure of the species yet):

The flower below, the wild hyacinth, was very common in places:

and frequently appeared in large patches:
 

There were also a lot of Ozark spiderwort (below), which also sometimes occurred in patches:

The flower below is of some kind of a phlox:

Below is a picture of the rolling hills and valleys typical of this part of the Ouachitas, with many oaks, hickories, and shortleaf pine:

Below is a picture of a mayapple, which is common across the eastern US:

Below is the view from an overlook known as "Lover's Leap", showing an exposure of a sandstone cliff:

I think my absolute favorite of all these really cool wildflowers was the one pictured below, the dwarf crested iris:

 This diminutive native iris was very common in the moister, more sheltered areas, where it was abundant in patches:

Just so y'all believe its name, I put a penny next to this example:

Remarkably enough, I had the trail to myself this evening, with the exception of the cottontail rabbit I snapped a picture of, below:

and a handful of white-tailed deer I jumped out of one draw.  What a way to spend an evening!