Foliage in the Great Smoky Mountains

Foliage in the Great Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains run along the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. 521,621 acres harbor over 130 species of trees and over 4,000 species of other types of plants. The Great Smoky Mountains are a popular autumn vacation destination due to the amazing fall foliage that comes with such a variety of trees.

Maple trees are well-known for spectacular autumn colors, and there are many types of maples in the Great Smokies. Striped maples grow at low mountain elevations. Red maples, producing dramatic scarlet foliage, can be found in moist, swampy areas. Silver maples, with longer, delicate leaves than the striped and red maples, grown on riverbanks. Mountain maples grow at high elevations. Maple trees produce winged green seeds that often spin like cartwheels as they fall.

Yellow buckeyes, with their poisonous fruits, are common sights in the Great Smokies.

Pawpaws are small trees that produce edible fruit that has been compared in flavor to the banana or mango.

Birch trees are another frequent sight in the Great Smoky Mountains. Yellow birch, named for the color of the tree's bark, can be found by rivers, as well as sweet birch, also called black birch, river birch, mountain paper birch, and European weeping birch. Birch trees have almost heart-shaped leaves that end in a point, and some types of birch trees are known for their paper-like, peeling bark.

Several types of hickory trees grow all over the Smokies. Hickory trees have shiny, teardrop-shaped leaves. Only some types of hickory nuts are edible to humans. Others can be used for animal feed. Pecan trees, with their popular, delicious nuts, are also in the hickory family.

Dogwoods, the state flower of North Carolina, appear in the Smokies. Dogwoods have white or pink flowers, glossy, teardrop-shaped leaves, and red berries.

Persimmon trees have long leaves with rippled edges and produce an edible fruit which makes a delicious pudding.

The American witch-hazel has yellow flowers, and the leaves turn golden in the fall. The leaves and bark are used to produce the astringent witch hazel.

Holly trees, with their familiar prickly green leaves and red berries, can be found in the Smokies, lending a touch of color after other foliage has faded and fallen.

Sweetgums have five-pointed leaves that resemble maple leaves, and prickly fruits filled with seeds. Although called gumballs, the seeds are not edible, but the sap, or gum resin, once hardened, can be chewed like gum.

Magnolias, popularly associated with the south, grow in the Great Smoky Mountains. Magnolia trees have thick, dark leaves, and large flowers with waxy petals.

Apple trees and mulberry trees grown in the forests of the Smokies and provide Food for deer, squirrels, and birds. Other fruit trees that grow in the Great Smoky Mountains include several types of cherry and plum trees, and even the common pear.

Evergreens like spruce and pine bring winter color to the Smokies after the fall foliage is gone. Norway spruce, red spruce, longleaf and shortleaf pine, and pitch pine are just some of the evergreens native to the Smokies.

The forests of the Smokies are heavily populated by many types of oaks, such as scarlet oak, whose leaves turn a beautiful deep red in the fall.

These are only a few of the many types of foliage that bring such beauty and variety to the Great Smoky Mountains and make it such a popular getaway for vacationers and day-trip "leaf peepers

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