snow trillium

the other night we went crunching through the blanket of leaves in the woods. mark was planting B's christmas tree (she insisted on having a LIVE tree in her room at christmas in protest to our new artificial tree. her dad was a softy and bought her the tree. and now it is planted on the edge of the woods. i hope it makes it, but it is not looking too good right now). anyway, i tagged along and was looking for birds and critters when i noticed little patches of white flowers blooming...

i recognized the three leaf and petal pattern as trillium, but it was not the prairie trillium that i have commonly seen. that plant has a brownish red flower, is much taller, and blooms later in spring.

excited by my sighting, i did some google research. i found the best information on the illinois wildflower website. there i learned that its latin name is trillium nivale and it is commonly called snow trillium because it blooms so early in the spring when there is often still snow on the ground. according to the distribution map, it does not even grow in our county or the surrounding counties; other places in illinois it is uncommon. it is considered an "indicator species of high quality upland woods." i was pleased to read this about our little woodland home. :o)

everyday gift: a discovery