Trillium Ovatum

Day 171: I find it highly amusing that I actually caught out a couple of people who should have known better with yesterday's April Fool's prank, so today I will make it up to the readers who have every right to expect accuracy in my posts by telling you something you might not know about Trillium ovatum.

You will find this plant described in most field guides as having a three-petalled white flower held above three leaves. Sorry, but that's not what's really going on here. What you see above the ground is a scape, i.e., a flower stalk. The green "leaves" are bracts, i.e., specialized leaf-like structures from which the inflorescence emerges. Other examples of bracts which are mistaken for petals are found in poinsettias (the red bits) and dogwood (the white parts). Close examination of either of these familiar plants will reveal the true flowers clustered together in the center of the showy bracts. Some common scapes include chives, onions and other alliums, whose the flower-bearing stems (peduncles) very much resemble their non-flowering leaves. Bracts perform photosynthetic functions like true leaves, but their primary purpose is to protect the reproductive structures of the plant, and to act as a draw for pollinators. Trillium ovatum's true leaves take the form of tiny scales (cataphylls) on the rhizome, which store nutrients and provide structural support for the plant.