Native autumn yellow daisies, also known as Porter's sunflowers, blooming at the foot of Arabia Mountain, a granite-gneiss monadnock.
Photographed in morning light, along the Arabia Mountain PATH within the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve, near the town of Stonecrest in east DeKalb County, Georgia, USA.
25 September 2026, at 8:20 am EDT.
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About Arabia Mountain yellow daisies
— Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance.Every year in September, an explosion of yellow flowers covers granite outcrops such as Arabia Mountain, Panola Mountain [and Stone Mountain]. These are yellow daisies (Helianthus porteri). Related to sunflowers, they are one of the fall wonders within the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area.
Found in only 4 states — Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina — the flowers are most common on the rocky outcrops of the Georgia Piedmont region, thriving in fragile solution pits — vernal pools that are often dry and sandy — found on bare rock faces.
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The story behind the image
On a guided morning hike, Preserve Manager 'Ranger Robbie' Astrove gave us some sad news. This autumn, he's seen fewer native autumnal yellow daisies than in any of his fifteen years as ranger at the park. The intense, sustained summer heat may have been to blame.
Astrove had a plan, however. He led us along a boardwalk at the base of the mountain. There, rains, flowing down the impervious granite-gneiss rockface, had irrigated the plants during summer, while towering trees at the base provided ample shade from harsh afternoon sun. So, despite an overall deficit, the autumnal daisies were in abundance here. “Nature's gonna nature,” Ranger Robbie told us.
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John Coates, Jr.: Prologue (No.39)
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