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.

Posted on August 20, 2024 02:52 AM by alex_abair