Can you just imagine how many times I passed out on our hike up Blood Mountain?  Well, not literally, but I WAS thrilled to my bones.  

 

Seek told me this is Starry Campion.  Never seen it in the wild, only in my wildflower picture books.  It is so soft and feathery, you can't help but love it.  Once it was identified, we saw hundreds of them!!!

 

OK, the books tell me:  Starry Campion is in the same family as Chickweed, Fire Pinks, and Carnations:  Caryophyllaceae.  It's botanical name is Silene stellata.  They are native perennials through most of the eastern half of the United States, but infrequent in the rich woods of our mountains.  The Wildflowers of North Carolina book suggests growing it from seed in your wild garden.  I wonder where one gets seeds for this!!!!

 

Anyway, it was so fun to see them all up and down the mountain.  

 

Psst:  This picture that I took is better than the one in the book.  ;).

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!