These past few weeks, I enjoyed watching early-spring ephemerals come to life, including the bloodroot in my front yard with its white flowers close to the ground and the round-lobed hepatica hugging tree trunks in local woodlands. The Virginia bluebell buds are also unfolding into pink dangling flowers.
Bloodroot and bluebells will continue to bloom this month, but it’s now time to look for two trillium species that carpet the forest floor in late April and May.
Look for the leaves of prairie trillium and great white trillium. Both get their name “trillium” from the three leaves that surround the three sepals and three petals of the blossoms. Prairie trillium is a woodland species, not a grassland species. Likely, it was named because it is so common in what is known as the prairie region of the Midwest.
The mottled green leaves start peering out of the forest floor in early April, and their three maroon-colored petals open later in the month.
Some other names include wake robin, perhaps a reference to the American robin with its red breast and toadshade, because its camouflaged-looking leaves are the right size to hide a toad. I’ve never seen a toad beneath a prairie trillium, but I like thinking of the possibility.
I have two patches of prairie trillium in my backyard, and they typically bloom a bit earlier than the great white trillium that covers the woodland floor with a blanket of clean white, from late April through mid to late May.
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Decades ago, populations of the white trillium were drastically declining in local woodlands, including at Ryerson Woods near Deerfield. White-tailed deer eat the petals of this plant, and with an overabundance of the mammal, the trillium began to disappear. There is a fence at Ryerson Woods where deer cannot enter. Years ago, many more trilliums were blooming inside the fence, compared with outside.
The Lake County Forest Preserves proposed culling deer to balance nature, and there was some controversy. But today, deer are periodically and humanely shot at some forest preserves. The meat is processed and donated to local food pantries.
The white trillium has bounced back exponentially. The Lake County Forest Preserves website states that the deer population is maintained at sustainable levels, typically 15-30 per square mile. Deer management helps native wildflowers, trees and shrubs flourish and promotes public safety, according to the forest preserves. “Risks of deer-vehicle accidents and disease transmission are reduced when deer populations are kept in check,” the website says.
So deer management is not done to give humans a beautiful wildflower show, but rather to help a native ecosystem thrive. One of the best places to see a wide expanse of great white trillium in Lake County is at Wright Woods near Vernon Hills. There is not a spring that goes by when I am not out at Wright Woods, walking the path leading from the parking lot to the river to revel in this natural spectacle.
I tried growing white trillium in my yard, getting the plants from a reputable source and not digging them up in wild areas, but they only lasted a few years. They are not easy to grow. It’s best to enjoy them in the woodlands, and please do not pick them. This iconic spring ephemeral signals that you are standing in a rich, healthy woods.
As the season wears on, the white trillium turns to pink and eventually withers. I visit this spot several times in late April and May, noting the first pink trillium and those intermixing with the white ones, and finally, toward the end of May, most of them pink and dying out.
At this time, the most ubiquitous of spring ephemerals is in full regalia. Wild geraniums, with soft pink flowers, seem to be everywhere in woodlands. A spring walk at Old School Forest Preserve in mid-May will certainly be filled with these delightful blooms. I grow a small patch in my native garden, but the scene is not nearly as lovely as walking through the woods, seeing them at every turn, creating a pastel-like hue over the land.
There are so many other ephemerals blooming in April and May in local woodlands. Some of my favorites include shooting star, Jack-in-the-pulpit, which a reader says she sees at Lyons Woods near Waukegan, and wild hyacinth, often in full blossom peak at the end of May at Reed Turner Woodlands in Long Grove and Wright Woods.
You’ve got about six to eight weeks more to wander the woods, gazing at the forest floor to see the many colors and textures of ephemerals that cast a magic glow in spring.
Sheryl DeVore has worked as a full-time and freelance reporter, editor and photographer for the baiduhai and its subsidiaries. She’s the author of several books on nature and the environment and co-author of a coming book on “Birds of the Midwest,” to be published by Timber Press. Send story ideas and thoughts to [email protected].