Rachel Stepek · Forest Rainbow

The Appalachian spectrum

Green

yellow-green · olive · leaf · fern · forest · blue-green

The Red-Eared Slider’s luminous underside opens Green. Olive shell, patterned mosses, leaves, fern, lichen, the Luna Moth, and turquoise Green Wood Cup carry the chapter toward blue-green.

Yellow-green to olive

Red-Eared Slider

Trachemys scripta elegans

Curled tightly on an open palm, the young turtle becomes a fist-sized spiral of deep olive shell, fine yellow lines, striped skin, and one vermilion mark behind the eye. Another view turns it over to reveal a luminous yellow-green underside patterned with dark rings and brushmarks.

July · Research Grade

Field fact and source

The broad red or orange stripe behind each eye is the clearest namesake mark. Young Red-Eared Sliders can also show dark, eye-like spots on the yellow plastron—the underside preserved in these views. U.S. Geological Survey →

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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

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Fresh 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 · Research Grade

Field fact and source

The cucumber name is hidden underground in the rhizome, while the most visible clue is overhead: a flowering stem usually carries two leaf whorls, commonly three leaves above and six to ten below. NC State Extension →

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Coral-edged yellow-green

American Alumroot

Heuchera americana

Round, softly scalloped leaves spread across 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

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Fresh 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

Despite its common name, Meadow Spikemoss is a vascular lycophyte rather than a true moss. USDA Forest Service inventories place Selaginella apoda in the spikemoss family, Selaginellaceae. USDA Forest Service →

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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 · Research Grade

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Fern green

New York Fern

Amauropelta noveboracensis

One fully opened fern-green frond fills the frame, broad through the middle and tapering cleanly at both ends. Its narrow leaflets divide into crisp, feathered lobes above dark moss, curled brown leaves, crossed twigs, and softly blurred ferns farther up the slope.

July

Field fact and source

New York Fern can spread by long, trailing rhizomes and form colonies across acidic woodland soil, especially where openings in the canopy admit more light. NC State Extension →

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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. Cream-white 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 · Research Grade

Field fact and source

Striped Wintergreen is an evergreen, rhizomatous member of the blueberry family. Despite its common name, its leaves do not have the minty scent associated with true wintergreen. NC State Extension →

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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-green lichen, and dark crevices, with wider views showing the fern repeated across the cool stone face.

Research Grade

Field fact and source

Mountain Spleenwort favors acidic rock crevices. In Kentucky's Rock Creek Research Natural Area, a Forest Service botanical survey recorded it across several rocky habitats, including conglomerate sandstone slump blocks. USDA Forest Service Kentucky survey →

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Cool lichen green

Rock Greenshield Lichen

Flavoparmelia baltimorensis

A broad patch of silver-sage 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

Rock Greenshield is foliose—a leaflike lichen with lobes that lift from the surface instead of forming a flat crust. Its rounded edges and coarse, pustule-like center turn bare stone into a layered miniature landscape and help distinguish it from similar greenshields. Missouri Department of Conservation →

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Silver blue-green

Luna Moth

Actias luna

A Luna Moth shelters from the rain by gripping the underside of a fern, its powdery blue-green wings pressed beneath the fronds and its long tails hanging into the leaf litter. Lavender eyespots and fine veins emerge in the closer views; from below, canopy light turns the wings translucent above Rachel’s upturned face.

August · Research Grade

Field fact and source

The long, twisted tails are acoustic decoys. They reflect a bat’s sonar in ways that can draw an attack away from the moth’s body and toward the expendable ends of its hindwings. U.S. National Science Foundation →

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Turquoise · blue-green

Green Wood Cup

Chlorociboria aeruginascens

A small turquoise cup rises from a pale fallen branch. A separate encounter records long blue-green streaks through exposed wood, carrying the color beyond the outline of a fruiting body. These photographs show two different observations.

October · Needs ID in the reviewed record

Original observations: 2026-10-11 · 2026-10-20

Photographs and field notes by Rachel Stepek · Field exploration with Nathan Stepek