Pic(k) of the Week: Spray of autumnal yellow daisies

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Native autumnal 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.

***************

About Arabia Mountain yellow daisies

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.

— Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance.

***************

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.

***************

John Coates, Jr.: Prologue (No.39)

-----more-----

Pic(k) of the Week: Jerusalem artichoke...in Georgia!

  Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

A native Jerusalem artichoke blooms in an urban meadow.

East Decatur Greenway
DeKalb County (Forrest Hills), Georgia, USA.
4 June 2026.

Helianthus tuberosus — commonly known as Jerusalem artichoke, sunchoke, sunroot, wild sunflower, or earth apple — is an herbaceous perennial edible root vegetable that is a species of sunflower in the Asteraceae family. It is native to the eastern and central United States and parts of Canada.

Helianthus tuberosus grows 5 to 10 feet tall (1.5–3 m). The leaves have a rough, hairy texture. The flowers are yellow, 2-4 inches in diameter ( 5–10 cm), with 10–20 ray florets and 60 or more small disc florets. The flowers are briefly fragrant, giving off a light, vanilla-chocolate perfume.

The plant's tubers are edible, similar in texture to water chestnuts, with a nutty flavor. They may be boiled, mashed, roasted like potatoes, or eaten raw. They do not contain starch like potatoes; instead contain inulin, which converts to fructose, and may be tolerated better by diabetics. The knobby tubers are harvested in the fall, approximately two weeks after the flowers fade (October-December).

Despite its common name, Jerusalem artichoke is not an artichoke and not associated with the city of Jerusalem. The 'artichoke' in its name comes from its similar taste. 'Jerusalem' is believed to be a corruption of the Italian word 'girasole,' meaning sunflower. Italian settlers in the United States likely referred to the plant as girasole because it resembled sunflowers.

— North Carolina State Cooperative Extension.
— Wikipedia.

***************

Freddie Hubbard: Little Sunflower

-----more-----