May Mountain Marvels, Mostly Macro

A gallery of Blue Ridge flora and fauna

May 18, 2026

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I began this month in the mountains, with unlucky April now behind me, spending a a weekend in the Blue Ridge mountains for the Georgia Botanical Society Centennial. This week I share with you a gallery from that weekend, spent mostly near the Chattooga River1 that divides Georgia and South Carolina. (If you are wondering why the audio for this short post is so long, it is because I decided to read the photo captions and alt text for a change.)

A mountain laurel in full bloom, loose domes of pink-spotted white flowers glowing against the shadows of a dark forest. Each of the five petals tapers to a point at the outer edge and, fused together, they curve to a bowl-shape. Thus, each flower is a white pentagonal bowl with delicate pink spots inside the petals and, around the flower's center, pink lines that form the shape of a five-pointed star. The shrub also has dark green, glossy leaves, though most blend in with the shadow in this photo. — Mountain laurel (*Kalmia latifolia*) on Burrells Ford Road

Black-and-white macro photo of the dorsal view of a furrowed orbweaver spider in the middle of her web against a black background. The spider's large, oval abdomen has a distinct leaf-like pattern, pale and sort of like a fern with very ovoid, rounded pinnae. Surrounding this is a black, scalloped border. The spider's four front legs are bent towards her body, two of her back legs are slightly extended back, and her other two legs are not visible in this photo. Her cephalothorax and legs are covered with fine, bristly hairs that catch the light. Her legs are banded with light and dark sections. — Furrow orbweaver (*Larinioides cornutus*) on the Highway 76 bridge over the Chattooga River

Indigo bunting perched on a thin, curved tree branch in the photo's midground. Bright green, soft focus tree leaves in the foreground and background frame both branch and bird. The bird is a vivid blue with a short, stout, graphite-gray conical bill. Towards the bottom left of the frame, a white-flowering wild blackberry branch stretches across and slightly up towards the center of the photo. — Indigo bunting (*Passerina cyanea*) on Burrells Ford Road not far from the Russell Bridge over the Chattooga River

The bright wine-red flower of Carolina sweetshrub with many strap-like tepals, some loosely folded in the center of the flower and others radiating outward. The flower is in the center of the photo and surrounded by broad, bright green leaves, ovate and tapering to a point. Some of the leaves shine where they catch the light of the camera's flash. — Carolina sweetshrub (*Calycanthus floridus*) on Burrells Ford Road

Close-up of vibrant, lustrous green leaves of Carolina spicebush, cropped closely so that only one leaf is fully in the frame. While some leaves are unaffected by any visible pathogen, two leaves, including the one fully in the photo's frame, are curled inward at their margins, with thin strands of web stretching across the leaf, capturing tan fallen debris from other plants. — Leaf curl caused by *Catinathrips vaccinophilus*, a species of thrips (no common name)

Overhead view of a spicebush swallowtail butterfly resting on bright green leaves with yellow midribs. The butterfly's velvety black wings are open, showing a row of white spots along the forewing's bottom edge and pale blue semicircular spots along the hindwing's bottom edge, except for the spot along the bottom of the wing that is closest to the butterfly's abdomen; that spot is pale orange. Each hindwing extends into a slender, short black tail. A wash of shimmery pale blue densely dusts the bottom two-thirds or so of the butterfly's hindwing. The butterfly's body is slender and black with four white spots on top of the head and two thin black antennae. The left hindwing's outer corner is missing, leaving a small, jagged line. — Spicebush Swallowtail (*Papilio troilus*) on Hale Ridge Road

Tulip poplar leaves, with a swallowtail caterpillar resting in the middle of the leaf approximately in the center of the frame. The caterpillar is brown with a band of white across the middle, thin below that band and thick and rounded above that band. The caterpillar resembles a bird dropping, mimicry that helps protect it from predation. — Tulip poplar (*Liriodendron tulipifera*) with caterpillar of Eastern tiger swallowtail (*Papilio glaucus*)

Close-up, overhead view of a cluster of four flowers and three closed buds at the top of a stem with elliptical, pointed, bright green leaves that fade into softer focus down the stem and into the photo's background. The flowers are a pale lavender that is very nearly white, and the buds are pale lavender-pink. The flowers are shaped like tiny trumpets with four fused, pointed petals that bend at nearly a right angle from the flower's slender, conical tube. — Summer bluet (*Houstonia purpurea*) on Burrells Ford Road near the bridge to SC

Overhead view of patch of summer bluets on a forest floor. The bluets have broad, ovate leaves a saturated bright green that stands out against the brown leaf litter carpeting the forest floor. The plants have small clusters of very tiny flowers, each with four small pointed petals. The flowers are a pink so pale they are nearly white, barely pink at all. They glow in the darkness of the forest shadow. In the top left corner, the top of a lime green fern frond peeks into the frame. — Summer bluet (*H. purpurea*), Warwoman Dell, Rabun County, GA

Macro close-up of a forked scorpionfly resting on a bright green leaf. This insect has a long, triangular orange face with big round orange eyes and long, thin black antennae; a white thorax; six thin white legs that darken to black or dark gray at their ends; and an orange, segmented tail that curves up between the insect's wings and inward like a scorpion's tail, the last segment ovoid and thicker than the other segments. The wings are long and pale with delicate black veins outlining the wing's segments. — Forked scorpionfly (*Panorpa subfurcata*), neither a true fly nor a scorpion but a member of insect order Mecoptera, showing the curled tail that gives scorpionflies their common name. Burrells Ford Road.

Overhead view of a small, oval-shaped, shiny brass-colored beetle on a bright green leaf with pale pink veins and a dark magenta petiole. — A leaf beetle I’ve tentatively IDed as brassy ball leaf beetle (*Spintherophyta globosa*) just over the state line on Burrells Ford Road, South Carolina

Overhead close-up macro of an oval-shaped, shiny, brass-colored beetle with stippled wings. — Closer view of the beetle, who is certainly brassy!

Close-up of the deep burgundy flower of Trillium vaseyi, lit up (by a diffused camera flash) against a background of dark shadow. The flower is a triangle of three dark red petals, with even darker red stamens, and triangle of three green pointy triangular sepals behind the petals. The plant is under an umbrella of the plant's dark green leaves, which are mostly out of the frame. — Vasey’s trillium (*Trillium vaseyi*), Warwoman Dell

Resting on leafless branch that stretches from the bottom right corner towards just below and left of the center of the frame, a wood thrush, body facing the camera and head turned slightly to the right side, showing only one shining dark eye. The wood thrush has a white belly, breast, and throat, with dark brown markings forming broken lines that form stripes down the throat and flare outward to the left and right tracing the curved shape of the wood thrush's body. The wood thrush has a russey brown head with a crown slightly more rufous than the face, and a dark, slender, short pointed bill. The wings are folded over the bird's back, with only the lower edges visible though dark and in shadow. The background is soft focus bright green and dark blue-green leaves and the gray, textured bark of a large tree with some blue-green lichen on its trunk. — ~~Wood thrush (~~*~~Hylocichla mustelina~~*) at Warwoman Dell [EDIT: Oops! I’ve been corrected — this is an Ovenbird (*Seiurus aurocapilla*)]

Silky laphria, a member of the Laphria sericea species complex. This is the most closely cropped of the series, showing a fuzzy, long-bodied, fierce looking predatory fly perched on the flat triangle formed of three tapered green leaves, which shade a yellow flower on the left and a yellow flower bud on the right. (Actually the bud is lit up by some sunlight that made it through the shade.) The fly has a long, golden brown fuzzy abdomen, black thorax with a patch of amber fur on top, long black furry legs, and lighter gold fluff on the backs of the front legs and the underside of thorax, as well as a big poof at the front of the fly's face that resembles a long mustache. The fly has huge black eyes at an angle like aviator sunglasses.A robber fly rests on a flat triangle formed by three tapered green leaves of cucumber root. The fly is fuzzy, long-bodied, and fierce-looking, with a long, golden brown fuzzy abdomen, black thorax with a patch of amber fur on top, long black furry legs, and lighter gold fluff on the backs of the front legs and the underside of thorax, as well as a big poof at the front of the fly's face that resembles a long mustache. The fly has huge black eyes at an angle like aviator sunglasses. The leaves shade a pale yellow flower with reflexed petals and, on the opposite side of the stem, the sun illuminates a closed, yellow-green flower bud. — Silky laphria (*Laphria sericea* complex), a bumblebee mimicking predatory robber fly, lying in wait for prey atop cucumber root (*Medeola virginiana*), Warwoman Dell

Overhead view of mountain meadow-rue growing from a crack in dark, damp stone. The showy foliage, broad leaves on thread-like stems, each round with slightly scalloped edges (kind of like a webbed footprint of a bird or something), is a vivid bright green glowing against the dark gray-brown rock. One of the thread-thin stems holds a small, branched cluster of white flowers that have no petals. The flowers of this species are radially symmetrical with small white sepals that resemble short filaments (thicker than the thread-thin stems). The overall effect of these radially symmetrical, apetalous flowers is of a tiny white pom-pom. This photo shows only two flowers on the plant, one that is still a small white bud, and one fully blooming white pom-pom blossom. — Mountain meadow-rue (*Thalictrum clavatum*) on Burrell’s Ford Road

Planthopper at Warwoman Dell. My tentative ID is Xantholobus muticus.

Overhead close-up of many white flowers, each with five long, thin, tapered petals joined at the base by a dark pink calyx that arises from a very thin, branching, wine-colored stem. The background of the photo is mostly bright green leaves of various plants, including the trifoliate leaves of the white-flowered plant that is the focus of this photo. Those leaves are divided into long, tapered lobes (not unlike the flower petals) with slightly serrated edges and prominent midribs. — Bowman’s root (*Gillenia trifoliata*) on Burrells Ford Road near the Russell Bridge

A cranefly, with a long, very thin body; very long spidery legs; and a pair of long, transparent wings, resting on a bright green leaf with serrated edges. The cranefly's legs are black, the vein bordering the top of each wing is golden yellow, the thorax is white (or pale gray), and the abdomen is striped black and bright orange. — A beautiful crane fly of unknown species at Warwoman Dell

Against a completely black sky, the moon, large and round. The moon glows white, with gray craters visible on the surface. — Near midnight on Overflow Creek, the night after the full moon

Even with a post that Substack tells me “may be truncated in some email clients,” I have more pictures from that weekend to share. Expect another gallery or perhaps a longer essay about the region in the future!

Readers, what adventures has May brought you? What adventures do you have planned for this last half of May?

Upcoming Events and Community Science

Georgia Botanical Society has several free field trips coming up this summer!

Dragonfly Week runs from July 4th through 12th. The British Dragonfly Society has recognized this week for years, and I think we should celebrate here in the U.S., too!

World Snake Day is July 16th. (I cannot find an official webpage for it.)

National Moth Week is July 18th-26th!

If you know of any community science days or weeks or events in May and June, please let me know!

Find community science events at the SciStarter calendar. To suggest an event or initiative for me to include in future posts — wherever you are, not limited to the Southeastern US — reply to this post in your inbox, send me a Substack message, or

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