One of the wildflowers I photographed on my recent trips to the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway was Wood Betony. It’s scientific name is Pedicularis canadensis.

Wood Betony is also known as Common Lousewort. Originally it was believed that livestock could become infected with lice after eating the plant. The plants grow to about 12″ tall and are easily identified by the two-lipped bi-colored flowers. The upper lip of the flower is hooded. It usually blooms from April through June.

In April, I photographed the Wood Betony along Chestnut Top Trail in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I saw a few single plants along the trail.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

A few weeks later, in early May, we were on the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Asheville and found several large clusters of Wood Betony. The plants were much fuller, with many more leaves than the ones I’d seen in the Smoky Mountains a few weeks earlier.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

As I was finishing photographing the cluster of Wood Betony, I happened to look down on the plants from directly above, and found a great angle to photograph them from.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Wood Betony was one of the more unusual wildflowers I photographed on my trips this spring. Once I knew what to look for, the distinctive hooded flowers were not too difficult to find in shady areas along the Blue Ridge Parkway.