Tag Archive for: Stinking Benjamin trillium

Fall means harvest but not only of fruits and seeds. Because of lack of space for pots, unwillingly, last spring I kept some T. erectum seeds in their Ziploc storage bag. I said, I’ll see how it goes…I like to experiment and I didn’t want to lose one season. We need Trilliums for our new garden!

For weeks on end I forgot about them, but once in a while I added just a drop of water to the mix. Now it’s time to harvest :) They will be planted into pots to get established until the winter arrives. Coming spring, the first leaves will be ready to emerge.

Trillium erectum seedling

Trillium erectum seedling: rhizomes and first roots formed in slightly moist vermiculite/bags. Not that I recommend the method, but if one momentarily lacks the space for pots, why not?

Necessity is for sure the mother of invention. This is what I am aiming for; it seems I need to do some work on Erythronium, Sanguinaria and so on…

Trillium erectum in wild habitat

Trillium erectum in wild habitat

 

Trilix (Latin) = having a triple thread

If nothing else about wildflowers, one image can still thrill anyone  – the white carpeting of the woodland floor when Trillium grandiflorum is flowering; in southern Ontario sometime from late April to May.  Unfortunately, our car committed suicide, so I took this picture close to home in a remnant neighbourhood forest. You’ll just have to imagine this small patch of Trillium multiplied by hundreds, as it happens in the wild wooded areas.

Trillium grandiflorum

Trillium grandiflorum – Large-flowered trillium

Not that the provincial flower of Ontario needs a description; it is all about the number 3: 3-petaled white flowers (rarely pink) with 3 green sepals above a whorl of three leaves. Usually as they age the white flowers turn light pink. Unfortunately, it goes dormant by mid-summer but after the spring display we can forgive this little shortcoming.  Sometimes, individuals with green bands on the petals can be spotted – they look interesting but it’s said to be a result of a phytoplasma infection.

Mixed in with T. grandiflorum is often Trillium erectum – Wake-robin trillium, Stinking Benjamin. It displays stunning dark-red flowers above the foliage – three pointed petals framed by 3 green or reddish green sepals. The scent of the flowers is the source for the common name Stinking Benjamin – they emit odours to attract carrion flies, which are their main pollinators.