Saturday, May 10, 2008

White Empress

Greater White Trillium
(Trillium grandiflorum)

She appears in the woods a little later than her more vibrantly coloured red cousin, and she is just as grand with her three lush white petals, golden heart and three supporting bracts. Her petals are velvety, a little wider than those of the red trillium and opulently curving, as if she is trying to compensate for her lack of scarlet pigmentation with a paler but equally sumptuous grandeur.

No compensation is needed, for she is gorgeous on her own, and she is another of the northern wildflowers which Georgia O'Keefe would have loved to paint.

Yesterday, the woodland was carpeted with white trilliums, and the whole community was nodding vigorously in the brisk wind and early sunlight. There were late blooming red trilliums tucked in here and there, the first elegantly scalloped columbine leaves starting to appear among the rocks and I discovered ladyslipper leaves coming up near the trail which leads deep into the woods. Somewhere down that winding trail, a whole choir of grosbeaks were singing their pleasure.

Alas, there were also multitudes of black flies.

8 comments:

Sorrow said...

alas the deer came through and ate all my trillium...

Tabor said...

So, how does someone who seems to be so at peace with the world deal with black flies??

kerrdelune said...

So, how does someone who seems to be so at peace with the world deal with black flies?

... with difficulty, Tabor!!! There are hordes of them this year, and I am allergic to the little dears. I am trying to figure out how to make them part of my practice.

Livia Indica said...

Wow, all your close-up images of flowers makes me so jealous. My little camera just can't manage it. Beautiful picture just like always.

julia said...

Beautiful! The flowers here in France are particularly fragrant this year. When I stepped outside into the courtyard the air was heavy with the scent of tiny white star-shaped flowers on one of the bushes...
and no black flies

L'Adelaide said...

ah flies...how awful...right now, we have bees as in wasps but no honeybees yet..am looking...my flowers in my courtyard are abloom but I have not been puttering with my camera of late...as always, wandering with you is a joy...even with the flies :)

love, linda sky

Texas Travelers said...

Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.


We have posted:
Alaska's Haul Road - The Dalton Highway.
A 414 mile gravel road,
to the Arctic Ocean

Come join us for the trip,
Troy and Martha

Sorrow said...

http://www.sandymushherbs.com/
this wonderful nursery has a ointment with lavender and other ingredients that i found was helpful with the black flies when i lived in Maine...