In addition to the Vasey’s Trillium, another trillium that I photographed for the first time on my recent trip to Tennessee was Catesby’s Trillium. Like Vasey’s Trillium, the flower on the Catesby’s Trillium is found below the leaves of the plant. The flowers of the Catesby’s Trillium start out white, and turn pink as the blossoms age.
I spotted my first Catesby’s Trillium along Goforth Creek. I was photographing some violets, looked up the hillside and realized that right above me was a trillium I’d never seen. Once I checked my books, I identified it as a Catesby’s Trillium.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
This next photo shows how the blossom hangs down and the petals turn back.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
As I hiked further up the trail, I spotted several more Catesby’s Trillium. This pair were right along side the trail. It was rainy and muddy the day I was hiking along Goforth Creek. I ended up lying in the mud – shooting up to get these last few photos.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
This is my favorite Catesby’s Trillim photo from Goforth Creek – it really shows the detailed beauty of the flower.
A few days later, I found several more Catesby’s Trillium to photograph along the Schoolhouse Gap Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This flower was a paler pink than the ones I’d seen along Goforth Creek.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
This is the best looking white blossom of a Catesby’s Trillium I was able to photograph on the trip.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
The final pair of Catesby’s Trillium were photographed last week in the Fern Valley section of the National Arboretum in Washington, DC. Since the flowers weren’t hanging down, I originally thought they were another variety of trillium. But then I realized that the flowers were being pushed up from below by the next trillium down the hill. The identifying sign at the Arboretum identified these as Trillium Catesbaei. They gave the flower the common name of Rose Trillium rather than Catesby’s Trillium.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
As you can probably tell from the numbers of photos of various trillium that I post, trilliums are one of my favorite spring wildflowers.