Painted Trillium – Copeland Forest – 2026-05-20 – Ken MacDonald
See it here: Painted Trillium
We count ourselves lucky to have been able to observe these Painted Trilliums yesterday May 20th in the Copeland Forest north of Barrie Ontario Canada. We know where these flowers make their annual appearance but it’s not a location we can visit every day to check on them. Their blooming season is very short. Some years we’re just a bit too early and some years we’re just a bit too late. But this year we hit just right and were able to see a few blooms before last night’s frost probably put an end to the show.
Here’s what the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has to say about them.
“Trillium undulatum (painted trillium, striped wake Robin, painted lady)
Perhaps the most elusive of trilliums, the painted trillium rewards its discoverers with pure white petals, a wavy fringed margin, and flushes of magenta pink in the throat of the flower. It occurs in rich, acidic soils and only in locations where the soil stays cool and moist. Only at its northern extreme does one find it growing exposed. Its distribution runs north from the highest elevations in Georgia along the spine of the Appalachians into New England and eastern Canada. Adding to its mystery, this trillium emerges, expands, and flowers at an alarming rate. Quite literally it could be missed today and in flower tomorrow. Painted trillium are considered amongst the most challenging to cultivate.”
Perhaps one of the most ephemeral of spring ephemerals. Having lost a couple of good friends recently, they show that even when life is short it can be beautiful.
We also observed Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, and “Gaywings”, Fringed Polygala, Polygaloides paucifolia in the same forest.
Trillium undulatum by Dave Bonta
Painted lady, late riser,
you rush out of the ground,
get pollinated on the fly
sometimes before
your petals fully open,
so that within one day
after emergence they are
already turning translucent,
your pink makeup fading
as the light-flooded
forest dims to leaf-out.
But that’s your true
element, isn’t it?
The shade.
Even unpollinated
you are wavy, vague
around the edges,
ready to let go of
all color & get
the opposite of a tan.
Only a well-timed cold snap
can hold your snow.