Mint Search while in the Cumberland Plateau and DC (August 2024)
Travel notes for personal future reference and possibly posterity.
Checklist of mints to find:
- Conradina verticillata
- Scutellaria incana
- Mosla scabra
- Pycnanthemum muticum
- Agastache nepetoides
- Stachys arenicola
Day 1
Foster Falls Recreation Area
- Pycnanthemum muticum ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/102701817 )
- Mosla scabra
- Scutellaria incana (maybe)
if Pycnanthemum muticum not found:
Fire Tower Road
- Pycnanthemum muticum ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177610583 )
elif Scutellaria incana not found:
Pioneer Trail Trailhead at Cumberland Mountain State Park
- Scutellaria incana
else go straight to Crossville
Day 2
Devil's Breakfast Table, along Daddy's Creek on both sides of Otter Creek Road
- Conradina verticillata (search cobble bars)
- Scutellaria incana
- Mosla scabra, North of the DBT parking ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4157885 )
Nemo Trailhead (Emory Creek)
- Conradina verticillata (search cobble bars)
- Scutellaria incana
Jett Bridge Access Obed River Park
- Conradina verticillata (search cobble bars)
Day 3
Dawkins Branch Trail, park by Victor Elementary School
- Agastache nepetoides ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131776142 )
Mannassas National Battlefield
- Potential Stachys arenicola ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/86210642 )
Post-trip notes:
- Mosla scabra, Perilla frutescens, Glechoma hederacea, and Clinopodium vulgare are everywhere. They are incredible invasives.
- My suspicions about Pycnanthemum muticum being much more common in cultivation than in the wild were somewhat validated. I found my first seemingly wild population, but I found many more cultivated instances.
- Conradina verticillata was difficult to find, and I'm not sure I would have with my sight alone. Only after stepping on a small shoot did I notice a rosemary/pennyroyal scent. It's difficult to isolate the plant when it's in a vegetative state.
- Why has Agastache nepetoides so difficult to locate!? Top of my list of this fall and next summer.
