Western Trillium, Trillium ovatum, is one of the most sought-after and widely photographed wildflowers here in the northern tip of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. However despite having seen it growing alongside the trails on countless hikes, I have always assumed it only to bloom with a white blossom. As it turns out, I have been mistaken in this assumption.
While out on a nature hike at Wapato Access Greenway on Sauvie Island with the students and families of our daughter’s third grade class, one of the students pointed out a purple three-petalled flower growing just off the trail and asked what it was. I said that it certainly looked like trillium but that as I was only aware of that plant bearing a white three-petalled flower, it must be something else but I didn’t know what. However like any good naturalist (not saying I am one mind you, just that I did something any good naturalist would do if one was present) I made a few notes to use in consulting my wildflower guides at home.
While I was satisfied with my notes, I returned to the site the following day with my camera and 100mm macro lens in order to record some images of the flower in question – just to be sure. Then, consulting a copies of both Mark Turner and Phyllis Gustafson’s Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest and Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon’s Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (either one answered the question admirably – I’m just not a very good botanist and so I often double check answers to my questions) I discovered that yes indeed, the plant we saw was Western Trillium which can bear a purple blossom.
The things you can learn (or be pushed to discover) while taking a nature walk with children!
