Forest Floor — Big Meadows

Captured at ground level at Big Meadows Campground, Shenandoah National Park.

Subject: Woodland Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum)
Location: Big Meadows, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Season: Spring

Woodland Stonecrop is one of the few native succulents in eastern North America, growing low across rock faces and forest floors in the Appalachian Mountains. Most people walk right past it. Up close, the tiny rosettes have an almost otherworldly structure — more alien than wildflower. This colony was growing directly on exposed rock at Big Meadows, clinging to almost nothing and thriving anyway.