Mountain Laurel flowers opening against dark evergreen leaves and a wooded bank

Field Notes & Community Science

An Artist’s Appalachian Color Guide

An Appalachian rainbow in natural colors—photographed in flowers, fungi, fish, insects, lichen, and the changing greens of the forest.

Follow the spectrum Why the colors change

Mountain Laurel · May · Rachel Stepek

An Appalachian rainbow in natural colors

The mountains have their own rainbow.

I’m an Appalachian artist who has almost always had a camera in my hand. These photographs began as references for my artwork, then grew into a field record of the plants, fungi, animals, and lichens Nathan and I encounter around Kentucky Appalachian coves and forest floors. Color is often what stops me first: cardinal red on a bank, lemon yellow beneath a mushroom cap, or an Indigo Milk Cap which bleeds blue.

The photographs move from vibrant reds through orange and gold, then from yellow-green into blue and indigo. Violet warms toward pink before the rainbow settles into white, cream, earth brown, gray, charcoal, and black—the quieter colors of the same coves and forest floors.

The Appalachian spectrum

Red

cool crimson · cardinal · berry · rust · coral · red-orange

Red begins with the vibrant Cardinal Flower, then moves into the ruby-red globes of Stalked Puffball-in-Aspic before warming through berry, rust, coral, and red-orange at the edge of Orange.

Cardinal red

Cardinal Flower

Lobelia cardinalis

Tiered cardinal-red flowers climb a tall green stem, each narrow tube opening into sharp lower lips and curling side petals. Broad leaves frame the close views in saturated green; farther back, the complete flower spike rises against gray sandstone, woodland shade, and the quiet water of the cove.

Research Grade

Field fact and source
Cardinal Flower places its reproductive column directly over the entrance to each red tube. A hummingbird reaching for nectar brushes pollen onto its head and bill, then carries it to the next flower. Rutgers Cooperative Extension →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2

Red-orange

Stalked Puffball-in-Aspic

Calostoma cinnabarinum

Ruby-red spore sacs rise from translucent amber bases that gleam like wet resin among bright moss. One mature globe opens in a dark, star-shaped mouth; other views reveal a tall stalked form, crowded scarlet colonies, and an ivory immature cluster whose gelatinous lobes are still tightly folded.

August · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Despite its common name and puffball-like shape, DNA studies place Calostoma in the Boletales—the same fungal order as boletes—and outside the true puffball lineages. Mycologia study →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4

Cool crimson

Fire Pink

Silene virginica

Scarlet flowers flare from the rocky forest floor, each five-petaled face split into long, deeply notched points. Their slender green stems thread through gray bark, weathered sticks, brown leaf litter, and the first soft green growth of the season.

April · Research Grade

Field fact and source
The deeply notched scarlet petals attract hummingbirds and butterflies, while the plant's sticky hairs can discourage ants from climbing the stem. NC State Extension →
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Berry red

Red Raspberry Slime Mold

Tubifera ferruginosa

Tiny raspberry-red beads crowd inside a split in silvered, decaying wood. Some are round and glossy while others lengthen into minute coral fingers, their vivid color concentrated in the dark, damp seam of the log.

June

Field fact and source
Red Raspberry Slime Mold belongs to the slime molds, a different group from fungi. The raspberry-like cushion is a crowd of tightly packed, spore-producing structures, and its color works like a clock: young cushions begin coral pink to red, then deepen toward rusty brown as their spores mature. West Chester University slime-mold record →
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Fruit red

Partridgeberry

Mitchella repens

Scarlet fruits glow like small polished beads above a creeping mat of round, deep-green leaves. Moss, bronze leaf fragments, tiny stems, and damp soil make the berries feel even brighter at forest-floor scale.

Research Grade

Field fact and source
Each red Partridgeberry develops from a pair of flowers, so two floral ovaries join in a single fruit. The berry can remain on the evergreen mat into winter. NC State Extension →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2

Dark rust red

Powder-Scale Pholiota

Flammulaster erinaceellus

Small cinnamon-red caps cluster from the side of a fallen log, their darker centers densely dusted with upright scales. The caps thin toward translucent ember-orange rims above rusty gills, wet brown leaves, and a fine green film of moss.

August

Field fact and source
The name erinaceellus means hedgehog-like. Under magnification, the reddish cap becomes a miniature field of erect granules and scales; below it, the fungus is recycling fallen deciduous wood. MushroomExpert →
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Coral red

Brittlegill

Russula

A smooth coral-red cap rises on a clean ivory stalk, its center deepening toward warm carmine and its rim paling softly. Dry oak leaves, charcoal twigs, and gray stones surround the mushroom with the subdued browns of the forest floor.

August

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Red-orange

Field Bolete

Hortiboletus campestris

The rounded cap is a soft red-orange, matte and almost velvety, above a stalk that begins golden yellow and deepens through rust to wine red at the base. Curled wet leaves, dark wood, and one bright green seedling gather around the upright mushroom.

August

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The Appalachian spectrum

Orange

red-orange · coral · tangerine · safety orange · amber

Orange opens close to red, expands through flowering coral and fungal peach, then reaches amber and yellow-orange.

Coral orange

Cumberland Azalea

Rhododendron cumberlandense

Apricot-orange flowers deepen to coral along their ruffled, starry edges, with long rust-red stamens reaching well beyond the petals. The loose clusters spill over a layered rock bank among fresh green leaves, gray ledges, and the darker foliage of the woods.

June

Field fact and source
Cumberland Azalea resembles flame azalea, a similarity that helped obscure its identity for years. E. Lucy Braun formally named the red azalea of the Cumberlands Rhododendron cumberlandense in 1941; its type locality is Yahoo Ridge, Kentucky. Later botanical work notes that it usually blooms two to four weeks after flame azalea, once its leaves have expanded. Virginia Tech taxonomic history →

From field observation to artworkSee Cumberland Azalea on Purple Sandstone →

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Peach to warm orange

White-Pored Chicken of the Woods

Laetiporus cincinnatus

Broad salmon-orange shelves stack into rippling rosettes, each fan banded with peach and finished by a narrow cream edge. Close views reveal velvety upper surfaces and a chalk-white pore layer; on the steep wooded bank, light passes through the thinner margins above dark roots, stone, and moss.

June · Research Grade

Field fact and source
White-Pored Chicken of the Woods can fruit from buried hardwood roots, which is why a broad orange rosette may appear to rise directly from the forest floor. Its cool cream-white underside separates it visually from yellow-pored relatives. USDA Forest Service study →
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Red-orange

Red Chanterelle

Cantharellus cinnabarinus

A tiny cinnabar-red chanterelle lifts a curled, irregular cap above a short orange stalk. Apricot ridges appear beneath the folded edge, while gravel, splintered sticks, gray stones, and dark soil make the small flare of color easy to measure.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source
The cinnabar color comes from pigments within the fruiting body: this chanterelle contains a mixture of carotenoids, with canthaxanthin as a major component. Beneath the cap, color continues across blunt, branching ridges rather than thin blade-like gills. Published pigment study → Michigan State University Bonito Lab →
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Tangerine

Common Jewelweed

Impatiens capensis

The blossom hangs like a small tangerine pouch, freckled with brick-red spots and tapering into a delicate curved spur. A butter-gold hood folds over the opening, while thin succulent stems and broad blue-green leaves soften the shaded lakeshore around it.

Research Grade

Field fact and source
A ripe Jewelweed seedpod behaves like a wound spring: a light touch makes its five sections curl back suddenly and fling the seeds. That small burst of stored motion explains the other common name, Touch-Me-Not. University of Minnesota Extension →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2 · 3

Brilliant orange

Eastern Newt

Notophthalmus viridescens

This saturated orange eft is the Eastern Newt’s terrestrial teenager—a juvenile stage spent walking the forest floor before returning to water as an adult. Its curling tail, black-ringed spots, pebbled skin, tiny feet, and narrow toes stand out against cream, rust, and blue-gray creek stones.

Research Grade

Field fact and source
Eastern Newts change palettes as they change habitats. Aquatic larvae are yellowish green; terrestrial juveniles range from reddish brown to brilliant red-orange; and aquatic adults become olive green, dark green, or yellow-brown above with a yellowish belly. The eft's conspicuous orange accompanies toxin-bearing skin and warns potential predators. Red spotting also varies among the four recognized subspecies. U.S. Geological Survey →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2

Orange to yellow

Orange-Gilled Waxcap

Humidicutis marginata

A glossy tangerine-orange cap arches above closely spaced gills of the same saturated hue. The slender stalk fades toward lemon yellow, and a fingertip beside the mushroom sets its delicate size against curled brown leaves and damp soil.

August · Research Grade

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Amber to yellow-orange

Orange Jelly Spot

Dacrymyces chrysospermus

Marigold-orange folds gather on rain-darkened bark like small translucent ruffles. Their glossy, gelatinous surfaces catch the light at close range, while the wider view reduces them to brilliant pinpoints on a slender charcoal-brown trunk.

August

Field fact and source
Orange Jelly Spot is a wood-decaying fungus of dead conifer wood. Its gelatinous fruiting bodies can emerge in merging groups during wet weather, which is when their color becomes hardest to miss. Orange Jelly Spot profile →
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Tawny orange · pearl silver

Great Spangled Fritillary

Argynnis cybele

Folded wings carry large pearl-silver windows across cinnamon brown and tawny orange. With each turn, the upper wings open into brighter orange panes divided by black lines, while dusty pink flower clusters and broad green leaves place the butterfly among its late-summer colors.

August

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The Appalachian spectrum

Yellow & Gold

ochre · old gold · butter · clear yellow · lemon · yellow-green

Gold and ochre come first. Butter, clear yellow, and lemon follow before the last small flowers lean toward green.

Ochre to old gold

Shaggy-Stalked Bolete

Aureoboletus betula

Old-gold caps shade toward ochre-orange, their rims lit from below by a dense lemon-yellow pore surface. The thick, curving stalks are wrapped in a deeply raised yellow network streaked with rust and red, almost like open latticework. Moss, silver-green lichen, oak leaves, and twigs crowd the low shelter around them.

August · Research Grade

Field fact and source
The shaggy effect comes from exaggerated reticulation—a deeply raised network along the stalk. DNA-based work published in 2020 moved this species from Heimioporus into Aureoboletus. Alabama Mushroom Society → USDA Forest Service research record →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2 · 3

Rich golden yellow

Ornate-Stalked Bolete

Retiboletus ornatipes

The late-August mushroom stands whole above dry leaves: a smooth sunflower-yellow cap balanced on an even brighter stalk wrapped in a deeply raised gold network. The earlier hand-held view turns the cap over to show a fine, evenly yellow pore surface.

July & August · Forest Floor · Research Grade

Field fact and source
The golden net is raised tissue. Mycologists call that three-dimensional pattern reticulation; in this species, its depth and yellow-to-olive color are central field characters. USDA Forest Service research →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2

Cream gold

Golden-Gilled Gerronema

Gerronema strombodes

Creamy golden gills radiate from a tiny center and run down a threadlike amber stalk. The mushrooms spring from blackened, water-dark wood, where a hand, patches of moss, and the charred grain make their cream undersides look almost luminous.

August · Research Grade

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Golden yellow

Small Yellow Mushrooms

Hydnaceae

One egg-yolk-yellow mushroom rises cleanly through crossed pine needles, its wavy cap opening above a narrow golden stem. Blunt ridges run beneath the cap while wet brown leaves, black soil, and scattered orange fragments repeat the color across the forest floor.

August

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Honey ochre

Fibroporia

Fibroporia radiculosa

A honey-ochre crust spreads beneath decaying wood in thick shelves and dense fields of downward-pointing teeth. Creamy tips catch the light along each ragged fold, framed by black cavities, splintered bark, and saturated green moss.

August · Research Grade

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Butter yellow

Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail

Papilio appalachiensis

Lemon-yellow wings repeat across the damp floor of a rock shelter, every butterfly crossed by bold black tiger stripes. Open triangles, folded profiles, and flashes of powder blue gather among wet stone, fallen leaves, and the dark sandstone ledge below the waterfall.

April

Field fact and source
Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail was formally described only in 2002. It resembles Eastern Tiger Swallowtail but tends to be larger, with more yellow between narrower dark stripes, more angular wings, and rectangular rather than crescent-shaped underside hindwing marks. Original species description → · Identification summary →
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Butter yellow

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Papilio glaucus

Lemon-yellow wings open into a broad, angular silhouette crossed by four velvety black stripes. Powder-blue crescents and two burnt-orange eyespots brighten the tailed hindwings, while sandy gray ground and a few grass blades keep the butterfly’s full span visible.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Butterfly color sits on overlapping wing scales. In this species, those scales form four black tiger stripes across yellow wings; some females instead develop an almost-black form resembling the distasteful Pipevine Swallowtail, a color pattern that may discourage predators. University of Kentucky Entomology → University of Florida IFAS Extension →
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Clear yellow

Southern Sneezeweed

Helenium flexuosum

A rounded wine-brown disk rises above a skirt of clear yellow rays, each petal ending in three neat notches. The flower faces the lens on a slim green stem, with smaller blooms, wet-bank foliage, and softly blurred pink-purple plants behind it.

June

Field fact and source
What looks like one purple-brown center is actually a rounded disk of many tiny flowers, surrounded by the notched yellow ray flowers. That raised center also helps distinguish Southern Sneezeweed from related species along wet banks. NC State Extension →
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Lemon, cream and black

Yellow-Striped Oakworm Caterpillar

Anisota peigleri

Lemon-yellow stripes run the length of the caterpillar’s black body between rows of dark branching spines. Cream markings, tiny orange-brown feet, a narrow twig, and springy olive moss make the close views a layered study in line and texture.

August

Field fact and source
Yellow-Striped Oakworm caterpillars change palettes as they grow: early stages are yellow to yellow-green, while later stages become black with yellow stripes. Mature caterpillars eventually leave the oak canopy and pupate two to three inches underground, remaining there until moths emerge the following year. University of Florida IFAS Extension →
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Vivid lemon yellow

Fragile Dapperling

Leucocoprinus fragilissimus

A pointed lemon-yellow cap balances on a stem nearly as thin as grass. The upright views emphasize its clean, high-key color among russet leaves; turned on its side, the mushroom reveals delicate ivory gills and a papery cap margin.

August · Research Grade

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Lemon yellow

Club-Like Tuning Fork

Calocera cornea

Hundreds of egg-yolk-yellow clubs branch into tiny forks across a slick, almost black log. The upright tips resemble miniature antlers or flames, spreading in loose colonies through beads of moisture, bare wood grain, and shadow.

June

Field fact and source
These yellow-orange fruiting bodies are typically only about two centimeters tall. They grow from dead hardwood and have no separate cap, gills, or stem—the smooth club is one continuous structure. Binghamton University mycological herbarium →
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Lemon yellow

Dwarf St. John's Wort

Hypericum mutilum

Minute butter-yellow flowers open into five-pointed stars above wiry green stems and paired narrow leaves. Resting across a hand, the plant’s true scale becomes clear against bright shoreline growth, scattered stone, and a damp woodland bank.

June

Field fact and source
The tiny plant carries the same five-petaled golden form seen in much larger St. John's-worts, compressed into a wet-ground plant small enough to need a hand for scale. Its rounded leaves clasp the stem directly. NC Wetland Plants Guide →
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Yellow-green

Downy Yellow False Foxglove

Aureolaria virginica

A single yellow bell hangs beneath a vertical run of round chartreuse buds on a tall green stem. Against gray bark and a leaf-strewn slope, the small bloom is easy to miss until its clear yellow catches the eye.

June

Field fact and source
This green plant makes its own food by photosynthesis, but it also attaches to white-oak roots for part of its water and nutrients—a strategy called hemiparasitism. NC State Extension →
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The Appalachian spectrum

Green

yellow-green · olive · leaf · fern · forest · blue-green

The Red-Eared Slider’s luminous underside opens Green. Olive shell, patterned mosses, leaves, fern, lichen, and finally the Luna Moth carry the chapter toward blue-green.

Yellow-green to olive

Red-Eared Slider

Trachemys scripta elegans

Curled tightly on an open palm, the young turtle becomes a fist-sized spiral of deep olive shell, fine yellow lines, striped skin, and one vermilion mark behind the eye. Another view turns it over to reveal a luminous yellow-green underside patterned with dark rings and brushmarks.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source
The broad red or orange stripe behind each eye is the clearest namesake mark. Young Red-Eared Sliders can also show dark, eye-like spots on the yellow plastron—the underside preserved in these views. U.S. Geological Survey →
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Sunlit yellow-green

Broom Forkmoss

Dicranum scoparium

Sunlight turns the dense moss cushion chartreuse, picking out swept, needlelike leaves and a thicket of fine golden stalks. Wider photographs follow the same yellow-green across roots, dark soil, scattered trees, and the moss-covered lakeside slope above gray water.

June

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Fresh yellow-green

Cucumber Root

Medeola virginiana

A star-shaped whorl of smooth apple-green leaves opens above deep moss, each pointed blade marked by a fine central vein. Wet copper-brown leaves, decaying wood, and several different moss textures surround the small plant in a richly layered patch of forest floor.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source
The cucumber name is hidden underground in the rhizome, while the most visible clue is overhead: a flowering stem usually carries two leaf whorls, commonly three leaves above and six to ten below. NC State Extension →
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Coral-edged yellow-green

American Alumroot

Heuchera americana

Round, softly scalloped leaves spread across gray sandstone, their lime-green centers feathering outward into coral-pink and wine-red margins. Younger and older leaves carry different balances of the same colors above a small burgundy rosette and dry brown litter.

August

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Fresh lime green

Meadow Spikemoss

Selaginella apoda

Cool lime-green stems branch across wet stones in flat, repeating fans. Tiny overlapping leaves give every stem a finely scaled edge, while gray pebbles, dark twigs, and a few broad woodland leaves reveal how close this intricate patch lies to the ground.

August

Field fact and source
Despite its common name, Meadow Spikemoss is a vascular lycophyte rather than a true moss. USDA Forest Service inventories place Selaginella apoda in the spikemoss family, Selaginellaceae. USDA Forest Service →
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Deep emerald green

Greater Whipwort

Bazzania trilobata

Glossy emerald shoots pack together in overlapping three-pointed fans, each one built from rows of minute scale-like leaves. Water beads across the surface and sinks into the narrow seams, sharpening the pattern from spring green highlights to forest-dark shadows.

August · Research Grade

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Fern green

New York Fern

Amauropelta noveboracensis

One fully opened fern-green frond fills the frame, broad through the middle and tapering cleanly at both ends. Its narrow leaflets divide into crisp, feathered lobes above dark moss, curled brown leaves, crossed twigs, and softly blurred ferns farther up the slope.

July

Field fact and source
New York Fern can spread by long, trailing rhizomes and form colonies across acidic woodland soil, especially where openings in the canopy admit more light. NC State Extension →
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Deep forest green

Striped Wintergreen

Chimaphila maculata

Dark evergreen leaves rise from wet copper leaf litter, each pointed blade drawn with a bold silver-white midrib and branching veins. Cream-white nodding buds lift above the rosette in the foreground; beyond a mossy fallen log, Callie pauses among the gray trunks and looks back toward the camera.

May · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Striped Wintergreen is an evergreen, rhizomatous member of the blueberry family. Despite its common name, its leaves do not have the minty scent associated with true wintergreen. NC State Extension →
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Cool gray-green

Mountain Spleenwort

Asplenium montanum

Blue-green fronds spill from damp sandstone in narrow, intricately divided fans. Their tiny rounded leaflets press against rust-streaked rock, silver-green lichen, and dark crevices, with wider views showing the fern repeated across the cool stone face.

Research Grade

Field fact and source
Mountain Spleenwort favors acidic rock crevices. In Kentucky's Rock Creek Research Natural Area, a Forest Service botanical survey recorded it across several rocky habitats, including conglomerate sandstone slump blocks. USDA Forest Service Kentucky survey →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2

Cool lichen green

Rock Greenshield Lichen

Flavoparmelia baltimorensis

A broad patch of silver-sage lobes spreads over charcoal stone, its edges curling into soft, shieldlike ruffles. The center is rough with clustered bumps and gray-green granules, giving the lichen a dense texture against the smoother rock.

July

Field fact and source
Rock Greenshield is foliose—a leaflike lichen with lobes that lift from the surface instead of forming a flat crust. Its rounded edges and coarse, pustule-like center turn bare stone into a layered miniature landscape and help distinguish it from similar greenshields. Missouri Department of Conservation →
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Silver blue-green

Luna Moth

Actias luna

A Luna Moth shelters from the rain by gripping the underside of a fern, its powdery blue-green wings pressed beneath the fronds and its long tails hanging into the leaf litter. Lavender eyespots and fine veins emerge in the closer views; from below, canopy light turns the wings translucent above Rachel’s upturned face.

August · Research Grade

Field fact and source
The long, twisted tails are acoustic decoys. They reflect a bat’s sonar in ways that can draw an attack away from the moth’s body and toward the expendable ends of its hindwings. U.S. National Science Foundation →
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The Appalachian spectrum

Blue & Indigo

sage blue-green · teal · turquoise · cyan · clear blue · denim · indigo · powder blue · blue-violet

The sequence begins at sage blue-green, then moves through teal lichen, turquoise fish, clear blue, and stormy denim. The Indigo Milk Cap deepens the middle of the chapter before powder-blue and violet-blue flowers carry it toward Violet.

Sage blue-green · ivory

Blue-green Cracking Russula

Russula parvovirescens

A broad sage-blue cap breaks into cream-edged islands like old glaze crazing across a ceramic surface. One torn wedge turns upward to reveal clean ivory gills, sharpening the cool blue-green against dark soil and copper-brown leaves.

August

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Teal to blue-green

Smokey-Eyed Boulder Lichen

Porpidia albocaerulescens

A round blue-green thallus drapes over a mossy boulder like a cool mineral wash. Hundreds of raised charcoal disks stipple the mint surface, while a twig, bright green moss, and splintered brown wood define the lichen’s broad scale.

August · Research Grade

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Turquoise blue

Longear Sunfish

Lepomis megalotis

Turquoise lines curl across the cheek and gill cover, breaking into tiny blue flecks over olive-gold scales. The belly warms through yellow to orange, the eye glows red, and an open hand suspends the small fish above deep green water and the red edge of the boat.

June · Research Grade

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Cyan-blue

Bluegill

Lepomis macrochirus

Steel blue and cyan wash across the cheek and gill cover, cooling into olive, bronze, and charcoal over the patterned body. A dark fin spreads below the hand, while green water, reflected sky, and the red boat edge surround the fish with deeper versions of its color.

June · Research Grade

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Clear sky blue

Azure Bluet

Houstonia caerulea

Four powder-blue petals form tiny pinwheels around pinpoint yellow centers. Thread-thin stems lift the flowers only slightly above golden moss, curled brown leaves, and broad green foliage, making their powder-blue color feel both delicate and unmistakable.

April · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Azure Bluet has two flower forms: one places the stamens high and the style low; the other reverses them. That arrangement encourages pollen to move between different plants. NC State Extension →
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Denim blue · storm blue

Entoloma indigoferum

Entoloma indigoferum

A round cap appears painted in stormy denim, darkest at its softly depressed center and dusted with tiny silver flecks. Low views turn the cool surface over to reveal warm gray-pink gills and a slender blue-gray stalk.

August

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Deep indigo

Indigo Milk Cap

Lactarius indigo

Turned upward, the broad gills radiate in saturated indigo, shifting from silvery blue at the rim to ink-dark cobalt where they gather around the stalk. The cap above is a powder blue among fern stems and wet leaves. Broken edges release blue milk, staining the damaged gills an even deeper blue.

August · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Indigo Milk Caps exude blue latex when cut, and their extraordinary color comes from an azulene-derived pigment. On April 9, 2026, Kentucky named Lactarius indigo its official state mushroom through Senate Bill 19. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry → Kentucky General Assembly →
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Powder blue · mauve

Blue Mistflower

Conoclinium coelestinum

A whole colony of powder-blue flower heads drifts across fallen wood and layered summer green, with mauve buds waiting among the open blooms. An earlier close encounter showed the fuzzy blue-violet florets and cool gray-green leaves one cluster at a time.

August · Woodland Edge · Research Grade

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Violet blue

Downy Lobelia

Lobelia puberula

Two violet-blue flowers hang from a fine stem, their narrow petals opening around small white centers. Against gray soil and soft forest green, the color feels concentrated and almost electric.

August · Research Grade

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The Appalachian spectrum

Violet, Purple & Pink

blue-violet · lavender · purple-pink · mauve · warm pink

Violet caps lead into lavender flowers, dusty mauve, pink-purple, and the warm pink of Goat’s Rue.

Blue-violet

Viscid Violet Cort

Cortinarius iodes

Rounded caps shift from misty lavender at the rims to blue-violet and smoky plum near their shallow centers. Moisture beads across the slick surfaces; turned over, one mushroom reveals crowded lilac-brown gills above crisp tan oak leaves.

August

Field fact and source
The name viscid is literal: when moist, the violet cap and stem wear a slippery coating. As the mushroom matures, yellow-tan spots can develop and its young violet gills turn rusty brown as the spores ripen. MushroomExpert.com →
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Lavender-violet

Sharpwing Monkeyflower

Mimulus alatus

Clear violet flowers open into soft two-lipped trumpets, their nearly white throats marked by a faint wash of purple. Water beads on sharply toothed green leaves and square stems, with dark soil, wet stone, and the shaded seep close behind.

Research Grade

Field fact and source
The name is a built-in field clue: thin wings run along the square-sided stem. Its stalked leaves and very short flower stalks help separate Sharpwing Monkeyflower from the similar Allegheny Monkeyflower. NC Wetland Plants Guide →
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Soft lavender

Common Selfheal

Prunella vulgaris

Lavender flowers circle a short green spike, each bloom deepening from a white lower lip to a violet hood. Their small scalloped petals rise above broad, rain-marked leaves, rough stream stone, and the dark wet bank where the plant takes root.

August · Research Grade

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Warm violet

Rosepink

Sabatia angularis

Warm violet flowers with a pink cast gather in loose stars among fern fronds and layered summer green. Five narrow petals open around a small yellow-green center, while the woodland leaves range from bright chartreuse to deep shadow behind them.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Rosepink spends its first year as a low rosette, then flowers and sets seed in its second. That makes every pink, star-centered bloom the visible finish of a two-year life cycle—and the beginning of the next one. NC State Extension →
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Dusty mauve

Hollow Joe-Pye Weed

Eutrochium fistulosum

A tall burgundy-green stem carries long whorled leaves toward a cloud of dusty mauve flowers. The many fine florets soften into a pink haze against sunlit foliage, with darker tree trunks and a broad woodland canopy behind the plant.

July

Field fact and source
The name points to a useful character: this species has a hollow stem. Its large flower head can span more than a foot and draws bees and butterflies to moist meadows, woodland openings, and pond margins. NC State Extension →
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Pink-purple

Mountain Laurel

Kalmia latifolia

Clusters of shell-pink buds open into porcelain-white cups brushed with blush. Each flower is patterned with burgundy pockets and curved stamens, set sharply against glossy, nearly black-green leaves at the wooded edge.

May · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Ten stamens sit under tension in small pockets around a Mountain Laurel flower's corolla. A visiting insect can release them, springing pollen onto its body. Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University →
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Warm pink

Goat's Rue

Tephrosia virginiana

Pea-shaped flowers combine a creamy pink upper petal with a deeper rose keel, the warm color concentrated at the end of a slender stem. Fine hairs soften the many narrow leaflets to silvery green above dry grass and mottled woodland light.

May · Research Grade

Field fact and source
This native member of the pea family can add nitrogen to poor soil. Its bicolored flowers also support native bees and the caterpillars of Northern and Southern Cloudywings. NC State Extension →
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Smoke mauve · cream

Ramaria fumigata

Ramaria fumigata

A coral-like body rises in smoke-soft mauve, its crowded rounded towers tipped with ivory cream. The cool color seems nearly neutral until it meets the vivid moss wrapped around the fallen wood.

August · Research Grade

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The Appalachian spectrum

White & Cream

translucent white · soft white · ivory · cream

Ghost Pipe opens White & Cream in translucent pink-white, followed by the branching ivory of White Coral Fungus. Flowers and fungi carry the chapter through clear white, soft white, and warm cream.

Translucent pink-white

Ghost Pipe

Monotropa uniflora

Translucent ivory stems rise from russet leaf litter in waxy clusters, each one bent beneath a nodding, urn-shaped flower. Soft pink-beige shadows collect along the ridges and curled edges, while wet leaves, gray twigs, and dark soil deepen the surrounding floor.

Research Grade

Field fact and source
Ghost Pipe is a flowering plant in the same family as heathers and cranberries. Chlorophyll is absent, and the plant gets sugars through mycorrhizal fungi associated with tree roots. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2

Ivory white

White Coral Fungus

Clavulina coralloides

A dense ivory body rises from blackened wood in hundreds of fine upright branches. Cream shadows deepen inside the coral-like mass, while wet leaf litter, splintered charcoal bark, and fresh green plants make the ivory crown the brightest form on the forest floor.

August

Field fact and source
White Coral Fungus can itself be colonized by another fungus. Helminthosphaeria clavariarum can turn the ivory branches gray to black and reduce the crested growth at their tips. Burke Museum Herbarium →
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Clear white

Mountain Camellia

Stewartia ovata

Held toward a shaft of sun, one white flower opens from a leafy twig, its cupped petals surrounding a dense burst of butter-yellow stamens. The hand, glossy deep-green leaves, and blurred gray stone below keep the bloom connected to the wooded slope where it was growing.

June · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Mountain Camellia brings the tea family into the Appalachian forest: it is a small understory tree related to cultivated camellias, with large white flowers opening in summer rather than spring. Conservation: Kentucky: Vulnerable to Apparently Secure. NatureServe →
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Soft white

Multiflora Rose

Rosa multiflora

Loose clusters of blush-white roses fill the leafy canopy, each five-petaled flower opening around a ring of warm golden stamens. Fresh chartreuse leaves, arching green canes, and higher branches place the blush-white blossoms in a dense wall of growth.

May · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Multiflora Rose was introduced for uses including rose rootstock and living fences, but it can form dense thickets that crowd out native plants. Ecological status: Nonnative and invasive. USDA Forest Service →
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White with blush

Great Rhododendron

Rhododendron maximum

Bell-shaped flowers shade from pearl white to a light shell pink, their upper throats freckled with tawny green-brown spots. Thick evergreen leaves frame the close blooms, while the wider view returns the flower clusters to a dark creekside thicket.

June · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Great Rhododendron is concentrated in the southern Appalachians and blooms later than many other rhododendrons. Its evergreen thickets favor moist, acidic, organically rich forest soils. NC State Extension →
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Clear white

Buttonbush

Cephalanthus occidentalis

One open flower head radiates hundreds of slender pink-white styles from a warm coral center, creating a delicate sphere of pins. Smaller ivory-green globes wait nearby among red stems and broad, deeply veined leaves striped with afternoon sun.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Each Buttonbush globe is a cluster of many small tubular flowers. The shrub is especially well suited to wet places, including streambanks and lake edges, and its flowers attract many pollinators. University of Kentucky →
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Soft white

Downy Rattlesnake Plantain

Goodyera pubescens

Two slender flower spikes lean beside a gray tree trunk, each one lined with tiny cream-white blossoms and round buds. A fern-green leaf crosses the stems above wet copper litter, moss, and dark bark at the base of the tree.

Research Grade

Field fact and source
This native orchid grows as a basal rosette. Its evergreen, silver-veined leaves can remain alive for three to four years. USDA Forest Service →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2

Warm ivory

Jellied False Coral Fungus

Sebacina schweinitzii

Short ivory branches rise in tight, waxy clusters, some blunt and clubbed, others divided like small antlers. Cream tips glow against russet leaves, thin green grass, dark soil, and the scattered stems of the hardwood floor.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source
The flattened, blunt-tipped ivory branches are the fungus's visible fruiting body. Belowground, the fungus forms a mycorrhizal partnership with hardwood roots, exchanging nutrients within the forest soil. Ohio Department of Natural Resources →
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Cream

Eastern Cauliflower Mushroom

Sparassis spathulata

A cream-colored fruiting body billows from the leaf litter in a dense fountain of thin, curled ribbons. Warm beige shadows trace every translucent fold, while gray twigs, dark earth, mossy bark, and a tree trunk encircle the ruffled mass.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Geography and tree partners help separate lookalikes: Eastern Cauliflower Mushroom is the eastern North American Sparassis associated with hardwood forests, while close western relatives are more strongly associated with conifers. University of Wisconsin mycology →
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Warm cream

Lynx Paw Oyster

Pleurotus levis

A warm cream cap projects from a dark split in the tree, its underside opening into ivory gills that sweep back toward the attachment point. Wider vertical views show the small fan against rough gray-brown bark, black hollow wood, lichen, and the green forest beyond.

Research Grade

Field fact and source
Fungal names can move while the organism stays the same. NCBI currently lists Lentinus levis as the accepted name and Pleurotus levis as a homotypic synonym—a name based on the same original type. NCBI Taxonomy →
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2

The Appalachian spectrum

Brown, Gray & Black

ochre brown · earth · stone · cool gray · charcoal · black

Warm brown gives way to earth and stone, then cool gray, charcoal, and black. The final photograph returns every color to the Appalachian landscape.

Charcoal

Old-Man-of-the-Woods

Strobilomyces strobilaceus

A near-black mushroom rises upright from luminous moss, its cap broken into ragged charcoal scales edged with silver gray. The same shaggy pattern continues down the thick ash-gray stalk, set against fern green, russet leaves, and a damp decaying log.

August

Field fact and source
The dark mushroom begins a vivid color change when cut or bruised: its white flesh reddens on contact with air, then deepens through gray-violet toward black. The ivory pore surface likewise bruises red before quickly blackening. Boletales.com →
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Ochre brown

Cross-Veined Troop Mushroom

Xeromphalina kauffmanii

Dozens of ochre-brown caps climb a blackened stump on long, slender stems. The crowded shelves range from honey gold to cinnamon, exposing cream crossed gills and cream rims against charred wood, damp leaf litter, and a softly green forest.

August

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Banded warm brown

Turkey-tail

Trametes versicolor

Velvety fans overlap along a fallen log in concentric bands of cinnamon, taupe, cool gray, and cream. Their finely fringed white rims curl into ruffled waves, and a side view reveals the thin layered shelves above silver-gray weathered wood.

August · Research Grade

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Tawny brown

Pink-Striped Oakworm Moth

Anisota virginiensis

Chocolate-brown wings spread across a hand, crossed by muted rose bands and marked with one clean white spot on each side. The plump abdomen glows pumpkin orange beneath the dusky wings, with fingertips and a blurred woodland edge setting its scale.

May

Field fact and source
The name belongs to a different life stage: the caterpillar wears pink stripes, while the adult appears in ochre, brown, and rose. Like every moth and butterfly, the adult carries its color on overlapping wing scales—one animal moving through two very different palettes. UMass Extension → Smithsonian wing-color overview →
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Brown and tan

Velvet-Footed Tap

Tapinella atrotomentosa

A broad amber-brown cap rises above a thick, softly textured buff stalk, with smaller caps repeating the shape nearby. One low view reveals the dark underside, while wet oak leaves, pine needles, gray branches, moss, and deep woodland green surround the substantial mushroom.

August · Research Grade

Field fact and source
The dark “velvet foot” is a genuine identification feature: the thick stalk is covered in brown velvety fuzz, while the ivory gills run down toward it. The fungus commonly grows from decaying conifer wood. Binghamton University mycological herbarium →
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Earth brown

Common Earthball

Scleroderma citrinum

Two tawny spheres sit together in clear moving water, their leathery surfaces stippled with fine dark warts. Ripples bend reflected sky and branches around them, carrying highlights over submerged brown leaves, stones, and a diagonal creekside twig.

August

Field fact and source
Earthballs form spores inside a thick, enclosed rind. As they mature, the cream interior darkens to purple-brown and the rind breaks open to release the powdery spores. NC State Extension →
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Soft taupe-gray

Collared Earthstar

Geastrum triplex

Soft fawn-colored rays open across the leaf litter around a round, velvety taupe spore sac. The papery arms fold and crease like worn cloth, with dry oak leaves, gray sticks, and several smaller earthstars repeating the tender star shape nearby.

August

Field fact and source
The central spore sac is thin and flexible. When a raindrop strikes it, the impact forces a puff of dark, nearly black powdery spores through the small opening at the top. Macquarie University → E-Flora BC →
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Cool gray

Great Blue Heron

Ardea herodias

Balanced on a fallen trunk at the waterline, the heron folds slate-blue wings beneath a silver-gray back and lifts its rust-streaked neck toward the wooded bank. Exposed roots, mossy rock, tawny leaves, and reflected water make the bird part of the shoreline rather than a figure set apart from it.

April · Research Grade

Field fact and source
Specially shaped neck vertebrae let a Great Blue Heron turn its long, folded neck into a rapid, long-distance strike at prey. Conservation: Kentucky breeding population: Vulnerable. Cornell Lab → NatureServe →
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Black

Eastern Black Trumpet

Craterellus fallax

Inky black funnels curl through brilliant moss, their thin, wavy rims folding like dark fabric. Charcoal interiors, ash-gray outer surfaces, wet wood, pine needles, and tiny green leaves make the clustered mushrooms visible without softening their shadowy color.

August

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Black

Eastern Black Bear

Ursus americanus americanus

The bear appears as a deep black form at the far edge of a quiet cove, standing and then moving along the narrow shoreline. Charcoal fur is framed by silver-gray bare trunks, evergreen rhododendron, gray riprap, and blue-green water carrying long vertical reflections from the mountain slope.

March · Research Grade

Field fact and source
South Carolina has a resident black bear population in the mountains and upper Piedmont. Black bears are also strong swimmers and use home ranges that supply food, water, cover, and den sites. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources →
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Silver · charcoal · stone brown

Striped Fishing Spider

Dolomedes scriptus

Long banded legs flatten across a submerged stone, repeating the charcoal, silver, and warm brown of the gravel below. In close view, white lines and smoky patches turn the body into a precise little drawing beneath clear water.

August

View the iNaturalist observation

What the photographs taught me

Color in the mountains is never just a swatch.

The longer I looked, the more each color changed with the thing carrying it. Blue could sit deep in mushroom gills, flicker across a fish, or soften into four tiny petals. White could feel waxy, translucent, or lit from within. These are eight details that changed how I see Appalachian color—and what I bring back to the studio.

Red

A red berry with two small beginnings.

Look closely at Partridgeberry and the fruit carries two tiny dimples—a trace of the paired flowers that came before it.

Both flowers have to be pollinated before one scarlet berry forms. Later, that bright red helps the fruit stand out against glossy green leaves and the dark forest floor.

NC State Extension → · U.S. Forest Service →

Orange

Orange can mean bloom, fungus, or warning.

An Eastern Newt wears its brightest orange while traveling through the woods; as an aquatic adult, it settles into olive green.

The orange eft is easy to see and difficult to ignore, a warning carried in skin. Nearby, azalea petals, jewelweed, waxcaps, and Chicken of the Woods arrive at neighboring oranges in entirely different ways.

U.S. Geological Survey → · University of Utah →

Yellow

Autumn yellow was hiding inside the leaf.

When green chlorophyll fades, yellow and orange pigments that were already present finally become visible.

The same pigments help a living leaf manage sunlight. Across the mountains, yellow also appears in flower cells, mushroom flesh, pore surfaces, and thousands of overlapping butterfly scales—similar color, completely different surfaces.

USDA Forest Service → · University of Kentucky →

Green

A green lichen is a small shared life.

The broad green patch on a rock is not one organism working alone: a fungus makes shelter while algae inside use sunlight to make food.

That partnership becomes the greenshield spreading across the stone. Look closer still and a lichen can contain yeasts and bacteria too—a whole community flattened into what first seems like one quiet color.

U.S. Forest Service → · Missouri Department of Conservation →

Blue

Blue changes when the surface changes.

The Indigo Milk Cap makes its own deep blue. A sunfish flashes turquoise because tiny reflective layers in its skin catch and return the light.

That is why fish color seems to move as the body turns: blue slips into olive, gold, or green with the angle. Flowers reach powder blue and violet through pigments and petal structure, while water and sky add their own reflected color around everything.

Smithsonian → · Research on blue anthocyanin color →

Violet

A flower looks different to a bee.

Bees see ultraviolet as well as blue and green, so a bloom can carry markings that are invisible to me.

Petal shape, surface, scent, nectar, background, and angle all become part of the invitation. What I call violet is only one view of a much larger signal passing between flower and visitor.

Floral optics and pollinator vision → · Flower-color chemistry →

White

White is full of small shadows.

A white petal can look luminous because light keeps meeting cell walls and tiny air spaces, then scatters back toward the eye.

Change the thickness or surface and white becomes waxy, papery, translucent, or warm cream. Veins, curled edges, shaded centers, and reflected green from nearby leaves keep it from ever being blank.

American Journal of Botany → · Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew →

Black

Dark color can protect a fungus.

Some fungi build melanin into their cell walls, making the dark surface part color and part protection.

It can help cells withstand drying, radiation, temperature swings, and chemical stress. Elsewhere, darkness comes from black fur, wet bark, dense spores, deep water, or simple shade—each with its own kind of black.

Review of fungal melanin → · National Park Service →

The field record and the artwork

The colors return to the studio with me.

These photographs began as references for my artwork. They now form their own record of Appalachian color, while the same flowers, water, stone, wildlife, and forest structure continue into the work I make for Lakehouse Portrait Co.

Visit Lakehouse Portrait Co.Explore the artwork

Keep looking with me

The palette is still growing.

New encounters will add another shade, season, habitat, or closer view to this Appalachian field record.

Browse the Appalachian Field Guide
See how the record is built
Explore my complete iNaturalist record

All field photographs and field notes by Rachel Stepek · Field exploration and discoveries with Nathan Stepek