Where: West Blocton, Alabama
When: spring, summer
If you like: the outdoors and sports
Why you should go: “I’ve seen little old ladies weep at their first sighting of this plant,” says Dr. Larry Davenport, the foremost expert on Cahaba lilies, which bloom from mid-May until mid-June in rivers at or above the southern fall line in Central Alabama, especially in the Cahaba River, and in a handful of waterways in South Carolina and Georgia. More than six miles of trails at the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge provide river sightings of the blossoms, which unfurl into pointed white petals that resemble an exploding star. During the annual Cahaba Lily Festival in West Blocton (May 17), visitors join together on canoe trips to witness the blooms en masse, and Davenport, a professor of biological and environmental sciences at Samford University, always speaks. “The lily has become a symbol of the wild and free-flowing places of Central Alabama,” he says. Beyond the Cahaba, the flower goes by the names shoal lily and rocky shoals spider lily. Whatever you call it, you’re not likely to forget the sight of it.
G&G tip: The Cahaba River Society shares helpful ways to access the riverbank on foot and by canoe and kayak for an up-close look at the rare flower.
