gavin02's Identifications

The flower bud opens into a single nodding flower, 1-1½" in depth, up to 2½" wide, forming at the end of a long slender stalk; 5 broad spreading sepals, tinged with reds and purple, form a waxy, rigid umbrella-like structure over the flower; 5 bright red, oval petals, incurved at the base over the ovary, hang briefly before shedding, high above its highly modified leaves that form an ascending, closed tubular structure, 6-8" long, filling with rainwater and digestive enzymes; the tube is narrow at the base, growing larger, rounded with a flat fused wing the length of the upper outside surface... eight species of the pitcher plant genus Sarracenia grow in North America, threatened by wetland draining, invasive species, fire restriction, & illegal harvesting

Needles all around the twig, not tapering; on a granitic gneiss outcrop 3,208' (978 m) above sea level, one of Greenville County's highest points, projecting from the Blue Ridge Escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains

Magnolia fraseri var. fraseri, a species of Magnolia native to the southeastern United States of America in the southern Appalachian Mountains & adjacent Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain from West Virginia south to northern Florida and west to eastern Texas, a.k.a. mountain magnolia or umbrella tree.

Note where leaf meets stem: Huge leaves – not the biggest (the big-leaf magnolia has the largest simple leaf and single flower of any native plant in North America) – but still gigantic!

A small, deciduous tree, Magnolia fraseri var. fraseri is a Magnolia species native to the Appalachian Mountains: Fraser Magnolia is named for Scottish botanist John Fraser (1750–1811), who collected extensively in the Appalachian Mountains; showy white flowers 6-10" (16–25 cm) in diameter with 9 tepals [segments of the outer whorl in a flower that have no differentiation between petals and sepals] open in late spring or early summer, after the foliage, quite large leaves 15–25 cm (rarely up to 53 cm) long, 8–18 cm (rarely to 29 cm) broad, with a pair of auricles (or 'ear-lobes') at the base, margin entire.

Magnolia species grow world-wide; 3 coexist in western North Carolina: Magnolia tripetala (umbrella magnolia), Magnolia acuminata (cucumber tree), & Magnolia fraseri (Fraser magnolia/mountain magnolia)

Compare to these other large-leaf native NC magnolia species: I invite you to my Observations
• Fraser Magnolia, Magnolia fraseri inaturalist.org/observations/66239567
• Bigleaf Magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla inaturalist.org/observations/66184852
• Umbrella Magnolia, Magnolia tripetala inaturalist.org/observations/66239896