Mt. Nusatsum

Mt. Nusatsum

Monday, April 23, 2012

Trilliums

Spending part of my youth in the West Kootenays I always looked forward to seeing the mixed deciduous/coniferous forest floor covered in blooms of white Western Trillium's (Trillium ovatum) in April.  For nearly 30 years now looking around the Bella Coola Valley in almost identical habitat, with a very similar climate (maybe a tad wetter) I've never found any.   The bible on coastal plants - Plants of Coastal British Columbia, by Pojar & MacKinnon shows their coastal range well south of the north end of the Vancouver Island.  I gave up looking for them finally.  About 15 years ago a friend with a nursery for native BC plants on Vancouver Island offered me a plant, which I placed in a rich site of mixed coniferous/deciduous forest.  For those 15 plus years it hasn't disappointed us, flowering every year within a week of the middle of April and adding one or two flowers a year. It's a a large clump now, but hasn't made one shred of attempt to spread by rhizomes or seed - truly a plant that doesn't seem meant to be here, but thrives in its own little spot.  We enjoy it immensely every year.  Grizzly

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful flower - have never seen one. This is probably what they named the camp trailer after, eh?

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  2. I too have these in my garden, they came from my uncle in Burnaby who used to get permission to rescue them instead of being destroyed by developments and construction.

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