FLORA AND FAUNA
WHITE SQUIRRELS: The local town of Brevard is known for it beautiful white squirrels, even having a white squirrel festival each spring. A few have made their way to Lake Toxaway. WATERFALLS: Our area is known as “The Land of the Waterfalls” featuring 250 falls in our county. Among them are Whitewater Falls, with a 400 ft drop (highest falls east of the Rocky Mountains), beautiful Looking Glass falls, Sliding Rock where kids can slide down the falls, and a few private falls inside of Lake Toxaway Estates. CARDINAL: In addition to being the North Carolina state bird and prevalent in the
region, the word “Toxaway” means cardinal in Cherokee. The Cardinal is sometimes called the Winter Redbird because it is most noticeable during the winter when it is the only “redbird” present. A year-round resident of North Carolina, the Cardinal is one of the most common birds in our gardens, meadows and woodlands. The male Cardinal is red all over, except for the area of its throat and the region around its bill which is black. The Female is less colorful with the red confined to the crest, wings and tail.
TROUT: Featuring over 500 miles of fishable trout streams within an hour, we have
great rainbow & brown trout populations in the area. While they find the waters of the cool mountain streams preferable, a handful have made their way to the waters of Lake Toxaway.
MOUNTAIN LAUREL: Actually in the blueberry family this beautiful flowering plant is found on rocky slopes in mountainous forest areas. Seen throughout the Appalachian Mountains, North Carolina is the only area where this shrub can actually become tree sized. Rhododendron, Horse Chestnut Trees, plus an array of beautiful wildflowers are also native to the area. GEM MINING: North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains and foothills are among
the oldest in the world. Comprising a complex mixture of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks that have been repeatedly squeezed, fractured, faulted and folded, these ancient mountains contain some of the richest deposits of gems and minerals in the world. Quartz, sapphire, emerald, rubies, topaz, amethyst, and other gemstones are found in this area. There are a handful of locations in the county where kids can go gem mining and keep what they find.
APPLES: North Carolina produces eight million bushels of apples each year, with most of those coming from the mountains. In fact, local Henderson County produces 65% of all NC apples, and show their pride in this production during the late-summer Apple Festival in Hendersonville. BLUE GHOST FIREFLIES: On early summer nights in the pristine southern Appalachian woodlands, tiny male blue ghost fireflies, each about the size of a grain of rice, emerge en masse to beckon the wingless females. Unlike the lightening bug, blue ghosts do not flash; instead, they emit a steady blue or green glow for 30 to 40 seconds at a time. When swarms of the fly’s drift together above the forest floor, nearby hikers might imagine they’re standing calf-deep in an airy, luminous sea. These unique fireflies are best found in Dupont State Forest.
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