Wildflowers of Tennessee

    Unindustrialized and unpaved, much of Tennessee is a place for beautiful flora to survive and thrive. For those of you that love nature trails and photography, this book is a celebration of the beautiful gifts of an unspoiled land. Most of the flowers here are smaller than the ones we’re used to, because the flowers we plant in our gardens are bred to be larger. But the black eyed susans in this book are free of insect damage, thanks to wild insect-eating predators.

   There are some funny plants here, like the skunk cabbage, whose smell leads insects to it because they think it’s a dead animal. However, the Indians dried it and smoked it like tobacco, and it survives ice in winter, trapping heat like a warm-blooded mammal. Some plants are edible, others are not. The ground cherry is poisonous, but can possibly be eaten when ripe. The Virginia ground cherry has different leaves and is perfectly edible, but the leaves are the only indicator and it may be difficult to distinguish.

    This book could be a great piece for the Tennessee tourist board. It makes me want to hike the Appalachian Trail, preferable in June when the flowers are in full bloom.