Cardinal Flower – Lobelia Cardinalis
One of my favorite summer wildflowers is the Cardinal flower (lobelia cardinalis). I just love the bright red flowers. They add a great splash of color in late summer and early fall.
This year, I photographed Cardinal flowers in two locations. The first was a single cardinal flower along the Little Brier Gap Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in late July. This was the only Cardinal flower I saw on my summer trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway and in the Smokies.
A few weeks later, I found one more Cardinal flower at the Wild Gardens of Acadia in Maine’s Acadia National Park.
I’m hoping that next summer I’ll be able to find a group of Cardinal flowers growing together. I suspect that would make a fantastic photograph.