This flower is blooming under the pines and oaks in the yard at our rental. We have no idea what it is, but it called my attention when I looked out the bedroom window yesterday morning. This is the only plant like it in the yard here. We'd like it to grow at our new home, so I think we may dig it up and take it with us. It looks like the kind of plant that flowers for one or two days. No one will miss it, right? Bad tenants, bad tenants.
UPDATE: Much thanks to Wayne over at Niches and to an anonymous commenter, we now know that this beautiful plant is a Trillium kurabayashii (Giant Wakerobin). We won't be attempting to transplant it to our new home (and mostly we were kidding, although the desire was real). It is a fairly rare species and collection of its seeds from the wild is done by cultivators. We'll see if we can find a plant at a local nursery, although the literature suggests their rarity also makes them pretty pricey. Still, we're excited to have found such a beauty. Today, Wednesday morning, it is under a dusting of snow (two inches fell, but not under the trees). I hope it likes these early spring surprises.
I have never seen anything like that!! I hope you find someone who knows what it is.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen anything like it either! I can't wait to hear how things are going with the new house -- hope it's all good news! My computer had a virus and I was off line for about five days, but all is well now, hope all is well with the two of you as well!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
Might they be a type of orchids, maybe Cypripedium fasciculatum, or something related? I am certainly no expert, but my recent interest in Maine orchids had me thumbing through many images of orchids in recent months. And it has the look.
ReplyDeleteIt's a Triffid! RUN AWAY!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a trillium to me. Maybe giant purple wakerobin - Trillium kurabayashii .
ReplyDeleteSome don't survive transplanting well. I don't know about this one. It is very nice, though.
Hmm, if that's what it is, it's a highly localized native to a small number of northwestern California and southern Oregon counties. You might want to run a search on it. Someone either planted it (it is available for purchase) in which case they wanted it, or it's a native colony which the owner may or may know or care nothing about.
ReplyDeleteThat is a Trillium, of which there are several species. WE have that maroon color and a cream here in the Cascades. From my experience as a native plant buff it cannot survive a transplant. Try to find a native plant nursery in your area. They may be able to find you a cultivated species for your area.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for that identification. It looks like it is a trillium kurabayashii! Very exciting to know that. And yes, we will go to a native nursery and buy some for planting. Glad I got out to photograph it yesterday, because today it is covered with SNOW!
ReplyDeleteWayne definitely nailed it:
ReplyDeletehttp://greennature.com/gallery/redwood-flowers/redwood-trillium.html
Never transplant wildflowers! They usually won't survive. The advice to find a local native plants nursery is right on.
Robin - this was a great post. It caused me to think about and review a lot of considerations. If that's a great purple trillium, it's quite interesting and very California. And it's very nice regardless.
ReplyDeleteWonderful how it was identified and if you had just dug it up, you would have killed it. Now you know how to get your own. The Internet is a great tool.
ReplyDeletewow Robin! I was going to suggest it looked like a species of Trillium. A very cool find. Trilliums are very hard to transplant.
ReplyDeleteI had no clue, but it sure is pretty when not covered in snow. :)
ReplyDeleteWe are in Seattle, WA, and there is a yard several blocks from our house which has had a yard full of those trilliums for years. Their blooms last a long time, although I've never seen them open up like the white trilliums do. They keep that upright position. Lovely strange things...
ReplyDeleteWow! I knew that plant immediately - a red trillium -because it grows wild throughout the Ottawa Valley and western Quebec where we live...the white trillium is Ontario's provincial flower, and they should be up in a few weeks, carpeting the woods - with "milliums of trillliums" as we say. Perhaps someone before you transplanted it from our neck of the continent...
ReplyDeleteWow! Just like the Pileated Woodpecker. Red Trillium was my guess. There are White Trillium here in Bellingham in the spring. Maybe I saw a Red Trillium at Big Rock Garden once.
ReplyDeleteat my bank today, i spied a trillium out front... will try and get a pic tomorrow, after the monsoon subsides.
ReplyDeletegood lookin' out, as always!
What a stunningly beautiful trillium! I've never seen a burgundy one before.
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely plant. We have tried to grow a different variety of Trillium without success even though they do grow wild around here. Yet, we still keep trying.
ReplyDeleteLove trilliums. I planted a bulb here in Vermont about 15 years ago. (Actually, I planted more than one... only one really grew.) It developed very slowly but is now quite large with about eight plants branching out from the original bulb.
ReplyDeleteDifficult, but beautiful.
trillium don't transplant well in my experience (not that I would ever tyry to do such a thing.) :-)
ReplyDelete