Field Notes & Community Science
A Rainbow of Natural Colors at Laurel River Lake
A close-looking ecological portrait of Laurel River Lake, photographed through plants, fungi, newts, sunfish, lichens, mosses, and the changing forest around its steep banks.
Mountain Laurel · May 10, 2026 · Rachel Stepek
A Laurel rainbow in natural colors
Laurel has its own rainbow.
I’m a local 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, lichens, mosses, and freshwater wildlife Nathan and I encounter around the lake. Color often stops me at ground level: Cardinal Flower above a wet bank, an orange newt crossing cream-gray sandstone, or an Indigo Milk Cap bleeding blue among wet leaves.
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—colors found across the same sandstone banks, wooded slopes, wet openings, decaying logs, and forest floors.
Red
cool crimson · cardinal · berry · rust · coral · red-orange
Red rises above a wet bank in Cardinal Flower, glows in Partridgeberry at forest-floor scale, and deepens through rust and coral across fungi growing from soil and fallen wood.
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 cream-gray sandstone, woodland shade, and the quiet water of the cove.
Field fact and source
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 a cream-translucent immature cluster whose gelatinous lobes are still tightly folded.
August
Field fact and source
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
Field fact and source
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.
Field fact and source
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
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
View the iNaturalist observationRed-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
View the iNaturalist observationOrange
red-orange · coral · tangerine · safety orange · amber
Orange moves from Cumberland Azalea and Jewelweed petals to the warning color of a terrestrial newt, then into waxy caps, yellow pores, amber jelly fungi, and layered Chicken of the Woods.
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
From field observation to artworkSee Cumberland Azalea on Purple Sandstone →
View the iNaturalist observationPeach 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
Field fact and source
Tangerine
Common Jewelweed
Impatiens capensis
Jewelweed hangs its freckled tangerine flowers above thin red stems and broad blue-green leaves. The close views reveal the pouch-shaped bloom and curved spur; the wider photographs place the complete plant among exposed stone with Laurel’s green water and opposite wooded bank behind it.
Field fact and source
Brilliant orange
Eastern Newt
Notophthalmus viridescens
Across several Laurel encounters, the terrestrial efts hold the same unmistakable orange against cream-gray stream stones, wet rock, and an open hand. Black rings surround brighter orange-red spots along their textured backs, while the wider views show slender legs, narrow toes, and tails curling through the small terrain.
Field fact and source
Red-orange
Red Chanterelle
Cantharellus cinnabarinus
A tiny cinnabar-red chanterelle lifts a curled, irregular cap above a short orange stalk. Cream 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
Field fact and source
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
View the iNaturalist observationAmber 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
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 hold the butterfly inside its late-summer setting.
August
View the iNaturalist observationYellow & Gold
ochre · old gold · butter · clear yellow · lemon · yellow-green
Yellow and gold appear beneath bolete caps, along chanterelle folds, inside small flowers, and across the fine branching structures of fungi and moss.
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-gray lichen, oak leaves, and twigs crowd the low shelter around them.
August
Field fact and source
Sunflower yellow · ochre
Ornate-Stalked Bolete
Retiboletus ornatipes
The late-August mushroom stands whole above dry leaves: a smooth yellow cap balanced on an even brighter, deeply patterned stalk. The July close view began beneath the cap, where the vivid pore surface and raised gold netting filled the frame.
July & August · Forest Floor
Field fact and source
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
View the iNaturalist observationGolden yellow
Yellow Chanterelles
Cantharellus minor
Slender egg-yolk chanterelles rise from pine needles, wet leaves, and soft green moss. Their small, wavy caps sit above narrow golden stalks, with blunt ridges descending underneath and scattered orange fragments repeating the color across the forest floor.
August
Field fact and source
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
View the iNaturalist observationClear 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
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
View the iNaturalist observationLemon 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
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 lake-edge growth, scattered stone, and a damp woodland bank.
June
Field fact and source
Yellow-green
Downy Yellow False Foxglove
Aureolaria virginica
Clear yellow trumpets flare from a tall green stem, their rounded throats surrounded by unopened buds and softly pointed leaves. Fine down catches along the stems and foliage, while gray bark, tangled understory, and a leaf-strewn slope locate the flowers in the woods.
June
Field fact and source
Green
yellow-green · olive · leaf · fern · forest · blue-green
Green connects the whole lake landscape: moss over damp ground, fern fronds along wooded slopes, evergreen leaves above sandstone, and lichen spreading across rock.
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
View the iNaturalist observationFresh 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
Field fact and source
Coral-edged yellow-green
American Alumroot
Heuchera americana
Round, softly scalloped leaves spread across cream-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
View the iNaturalist observationFresh 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
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
View the iNaturalist observationFern green
Broad Beech Fern
Phegopteris hexagonoptera
Two fresh fern-green fronds open above a dark bed of moss and leaf litter. Their triangular forms taper at both ends, and each narrow leaflet divides again into crisp, feathery lobes beside brown bark, twigs, and a second smaller fern.
July
Field fact and source
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. Ivory 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
Field fact and source
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-gray lichen, and dark crevices, with wider views showing the fern repeated across the cool stone face.
Field fact and source
Cool lichen green
Rock Greenshield Lichen
Flavoparmelia baltimorensis
A broad patch of dusty sage-green 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
Blue & Indigo
indigo · sage blue-green · teal · turquoise · cyan · denim · powder blue · blue-violet
The Indigo Milk Cap opens the chapter at full saturation. From there, the sequence resets at sage blue-green and moves through teal lichen, turquoise fish, clear and denim blues, then powder-blue and violet-blue flowers.
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 paler woodland blue among fern stems and wet leaves. Broken edges release blue milk, staining the damaged gills an even deeper blue.
August
Field fact and source
Sage blue-green · ivory
Blue-green Cracking Russula
Russula parvovirescens
A broad sage-blue cap breaks into ivory islands like old glaze crazing across a ceramic surface. One torn wedge turns upward to reveal clean ivory gills, making the cool, weathered color feel even quieter against dark soil and brown forest litter.
August
View the iNaturalist observationTeal 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
View the iNaturalist observationTurquoise 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.
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2Cyan-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.
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2Clear powder 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
Field fact and source
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
View the iNaturalist observationPowder blue · mauve
Blue Mistflower
Conoclinium coelestinum
Fuzzy flower heads shift from mauve buds to powder blue, each small cluster fringed like a soft brush. The second encounter widens from individual blooms to a whole colony scattered across fallen wood and green understory.
August · Woodland Edge
View the iNaturalist observations: 1 · 2Violet 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 ordinary woodland green, the color feels concentrated and almost electric.
August
View the iNaturalist observationViolet, Purple & Pink
blue-violet · lavender · purple-pink · mauve · warm pink
Violet begins in a woodland mushroom, passes through small flowers and flower clusters, then warms through lavender, mauve, and pink before White & Cream.
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
Lavender-violet
Sharpwing Monkeyflower
Mimulus alatus
Lavender-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.
Field fact and source
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
View the iNaturalist observationWarm 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
Field fact and source
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
Pink
Mountain Laurel
Kalmia latifolia
Clusters of blush-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
Field fact and source
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
Field fact and source
Smoke mauve · cream
Ramaria fumigata
Ramaria fumigata
A coral-like body rises in smoke-soft mauve, its crowded rounded towers tipped with ivory. The cool color seems nearly neutral until it meets the vivid moss wrapped around the fallen wood.
August
View the iNaturalist observationWhite & Cream
translucent white · soft white · ivory · cream
White and cream gather reflected color from surrounding leaves, wood, and stone: translucent plant tissue, white petals, ivory fungi, and warm flower centers.
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.
Field fact and source
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
Clear white
Mountain Camellia
Stewartia ovata
A broad white flower hangs from a slender leafy twig, its gently cupped petals gathered around a dense burst of butter-yellow stamens. Glossy deep-green leaves catch the sun above a softly blurred slope of gray stone and summer foliage.
June
Field fact and source
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
Field fact and source
White with rose blush
Great Rhododendron
Rhododendron maximum
Bell-shaped flowers shade from pearl white to the palest 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
Field fact and source
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
Field fact and source
Soft white
Downy Rattlesnake Plantain
Goodyera pubescens
At ground level, dark evergreen leaves form a low rosette webbed with silver-white veins against copper oak litter. Another view follows two slim flower spikes upward, their cream buds and tiny white blossoms standing beside a fern, wet bark, and moss at the base of a tree.
Field fact and source
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
Field fact and source
Warm cream
Lynx Paw Oyster
Pleurotus levis
A warm cream cap projects from a dark split in the tree, its underside opening into cream 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.
Field fact and source
Brown, Gray & Black
ochre brown · earth · stone · cool gray · charcoal · black
Warm brown gives way to earth and decaying wood, then cool gray, charcoal, and black across fungi rooted in the lake’s surrounding forest.
Charcoal
Old-Man-of-the-Woods
Strobilomyces strobilaceus
Dense charcoal scales break across the cap in ragged patches edged with silver gray, continuing down a thick, equally shaggy stalk. The near-black mushroom rises vertically from luminous moss, fern green, russet leaves, and a damp decaying log.
August
Field fact and source
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
View the iNaturalist observationBanded warm brown
False Turkeytail
Stereum lobatum
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-weathered wood.
August
View the iNaturalist observationBrown 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
Field fact and source
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
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
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
View the iNaturalist observationSilver · 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 observationAmber · olive black · warm yellow
Eastern Box Turtle
Terrapene carolina carolina
Across three Laurel encounters, the shell shifts from amber patterning in cove mud to deep olive among wet leaves. One turtle paused beside the red-capped bolete it had been eating on a steep wooded slope; close portraits hold the yellow-and-black markings of the face and forelegs, while wider frames return each turtle to the place where we found it.
July & August · Cove Edge & Wooded Slope
View the iNaturalist observations: July 23 · Feeding · CoveWeathered gray · bark brown · fresh cream-gold wood
American Beaver Sign
Castor canadensis
Fresh cream-gold wood breaks open the muted bank: a felled trunk lies across the slope, its cut end carved into broad, faceted tooth marks above a scatter of chips. Later, as Laurel fell, the lodge appeared as a long gray weave of branches running from the wooded bank, across newly exposed stone, and toward the remaining water.
August · Lowered Shoreline
View the iNaturalist observations: Gnawing · LodgeWhat the photographs taught me
Color at Laurel 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 the lake—and what I bring back to the studio.
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.
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 flower-color chemistry →
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. Around Laurel, yellow also appears in flower cells, mushroom flesh, pore surfaces, and tiny branching fungi—similar color, completely different surfaces.
USDA Forest Service → · University of Utah flower-color chemistry →
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 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. The Azure Bluet reaches powder blue through flower pigments, while water and sky add their own reflected color around everything.
Indigo Milk Cap pigment research → · Review of vertebrate chromatophores → · Research on blue anthocyanin color →
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 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.
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 at Laurel, darkness comes from wet bark, dense spores, bruised tissue, deep water, or simple shade—each with its own kind of black.
The field record and the artwork
The colors return to the studio with me.
These photographs began as references for my artwork. Together they form a close-looking ecological portrait of Laurel, while the same flowers, fungi, freshwater life, reflected color, sandstone, and forest structure continue into the work I make for Lakehouse Portrait Co.
Laurel River Lake is my home lake. Read more about me and the place behind the work.
Keep looking with me
The palette is still growing.
New encounters around the lake will add another shade, season, habitat, or closer view to this field record.
Follow the full Appalachian color spectrum
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