The 3-4km wide, flat valley floor of the lower Yellow River is bordered by more or less steeply rising hills, similar to the situation along the Escambia River. Burnt Grocery Creek is one of numerous small streams that rise from these hills, carve into deep, small valleys, and eventually flow into the Yellow River. These small valleys are home to a large amount of interesting plants, so it is worth exploring. Afterwards, we took a boat ride from a nearby boat ramp down the middle section of the lower Yellow River to Grimes Lake. Here, the abundant R. austrinum blooms almost exclusively in white to pink. We are aware of only two plants that fall into the yellow color spectrum. Further downstream we know only pink flowering plants. Further upstream the numbers of pink and yellow flowering plants more and more equalize the closer one gets to the Shoal River, a very acidic tributary of the Yellow River.
