Red Trillium at Sunnybrook Forest: Early May 2020

You cannot drive into Sunnybrook / Wilket Creek these days but you can walk or bicycle there.

While walking in the forest, I found one of the loveliest spring wildflowers

Trillium erectum has several common names: Red Trillium, Purple Trillium, Birthroot, Wake-robin and others. Its foul smell attracts carrion flies that act as pollinators. Early herbalists used this ill-smelling plant to treat gangrene, since, according to medical theory of the time, plants were used to cure the ailments they resembled.

There are many of signs of spring at Sunnybrook. Here are some of the plants:

Park scenes:

Sunnybrook Stables, which was here for many years, burned down a few years ago. No attempt is being made to rebuild:

NATURE POETRY

When God had made a host of them,
One little flower still lacked a stem
To hold its blossom blue;
So into it He breathed a song,
And suddenly, with petals strong
As wings, away it flew.                  The Bluebird  – John Bannister Tabb (1845–1909)

Miles Hearn