Today we are taking a brief pause from talking about medical
herbs and how amazing they are to look at wildflowers. Specifically the
wildflowers that are rare and protected, like Trillium and Lady Slippers.
Trillium are in the Lily family and they grow from 8 inches to a foot and a half tall. It has one white flower on a thin
stalk, with three large green leaves beneath the flower. Trillium gets it’s
name because of the threes. Three petals in the flower, three leaves, and so
on. It blooms in the spring.
The large flowered trillium are most commonly seen in the
early spring woodlands. They are pretty noticeable what with being a big splash
of white in a brownish, just turning green world.
But did you know there is a different kind than the three
petals shining up and high?
There’s also one called the Nodding Trillium where the
flower sags it’s head beneath the three leaves and actually faces the ground. This
one is harder to identify because the flower is not as noticeable. Some people
even confuse it for Jack-in-the-pulpit. This really isn’t a confusion for me,
because I’m not familiar enough with Jack-in-the-Pulpit.
Jack in the Pulpit
Nodding Trillium
There’s even a kind that’s a dull red. The flower is above
the three leaves and looks a bit like it’s white brother.
Except for the smell...
This flower smells like rotting meat.
EWWWW!
Yup.
This sucker ain’t interested in attracting sweet little
honeybees and butterflies. It wants flies, and lots of ‘em for pollination.
I haven’t seen, er, I mean, um, smelled this plant
yet. So I can’t say from firsthand experience what it is like.
There are 6 other species of trillium found in Michigan !
Now what makes Trillium protected. The plant only has enough
leaves, and makes enough food for it to survive one year. Just one. And barely
one at that. If a leaf gets removed, or ripped, then the plant can’t make
enough food and it’s a hungry demise for the plant.
You don’t want to be
responsible for someone’s starvation, do you?
Another note of fact, trillium flowers turn pink with age. I
thought I found a new kind of trillium when I came upon some pink ones. I felt
like Christopher Columbus discovering a whole new world…until a friend said that
everyone knows they turn pink with age. Well, everyone but me.
Lady slippers are not part of the Lily family, they are a
type of Orchid!
They have only two long leaves near the ground, then a long
thin stalk rising 6 inches to a foot and a half tall. They flowers can come
in; pretty pink, yellow, or even pink and white called a Showy Lady’s Slipper.
Showy Lady's Slipper
The flower is set up as a drive through for the bugs. The
bug enters the bottom of the flower, but can’t back out the same way it came
in. So it has to walk straight through, picking up the orchid’s pollen why it’s
at it. Kinda the opposite of a car wash, I guess. They don't get clean, they get pollen-ized.
Now Orchid seeds do not have a food supply. Most seeds do.
We eat the food supply of the seeds when we eat anything that originated as a
seed. Like corn, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, and so on. That thick meaty part gives
the baby seed the food it needs right there. Orchids don’t have that snack
packed with them.
So instead it needs a little help, and gets it from a fun
guy. Get it, Fungi? Scientists haven’t identified what kind of fungi it is that
is needed to make this dynamic duo. But what the fungi does is sends it’s
tendrils into to the seed cracking it open, then feeding the baby flower with the nutrients
that it gathers.
Think of a beautiful princess locked in a seed-like tower.
Pining away for her true love, until one day a brave and handsome comedian (get
it, Fungi?! This doesn't get old.) comes boldly riding up, breaks down the walls and then lovingly feeds her chicken
noodle soup.
Ahh, don’t you just lone happy endings?
So without this mysterious hero, we can have a million
orchid seeds and never see a single one flower. The plant then grows very
slowly. As it gets older it returns the favor to the fungi, giving it access to
food it could not get otherwise.
Lady Slippers can live to be 20 years old.
Which means they can vote, they can go to college, but they
can’t drink.
If you see a drunk Lady Slipper, you know they are in trouble, because they are underage!
So enjoy the wild flowers that you have in your life. And
appreciate the mystery of how they grow, how they survive, as well as how
beautiful they are. It never ceases to amaze me.
May you take care of yourself happily.
Yellow Lady Slippers
