Tag: rambling

I like how my brain’s current reaction to stress and boredom with a phone is wanting to write about the slutty hybridizational nature of the Trillium erectum complex even though such a ramble is impossible on the phone.

I feel pain for anyone who has to ID Trilliums for a living though. Many of them can look so damn similar, google tends to overlap images for different species as if they’re identical so you’re out of luck using that as a reference, and without context of natural geography along with other visual details you’re pretty much screwed over unless you know very very subtle anatomical details (if you’re lucky you get very obvious details like the colour of the ovum before v after pollination, but even that can only get you so far).

Take “White Trillium”  for example; Most of you upon hearing that name probably imagined Trillium grandiflorum. However, counting that species there are actually at least 15 kinds of white trillium. 2 of which are Sessile form, 4 of which are Asian species (yes Asia has a small select set of Trillium species). Not going to share images cause as I said, google isn’t dependable for all of them but among the species of white trillium there are (*sound of me turning the pages of my old Trilliums book before I begin*);

Among non-sessile NA species

  • Trillium flexipes
  • Trillium erectum forma album
  • Trillium grandiflorum
  • Trillium ovatum
  • Trillium cernuum
  • Trillium nivale
  • Trillium persistens
  • Trillium rivale
  • Trillium rugelii
  • Trillium simile

Among sessile NA species

  • Trillium albidium
  • Trillium parviflorum

Among Asian species

  • Trillium camschatcense
  • Trillium hagae
  • Trillium tschonoskii

Some genera like Trillium can be so goddamn messy augh I haven’t even included hybrids and stuff. It’s nonetheless amazing.