The Great Trillium Hunt

Hullo, we are out and about on our lunch time exercise walk. I wanted to find some Trillium today... that is the goal... but along the way we found something even more cool!

First up, we have Oregon Grape... we're not in Oregon but I think this stuff is like Canada Geese... everywhere!

This beary delicate looking plant is Vanilla Leaf....

It has flowers... somewhere... they are beary weird though.

There's a couple! They grow on separate stalks from the ground and... don't really amount to much. But... if you hang the leaves in a room and let them dry, they release a vanilla scent for several weeks... a natural type of air-freshener!

Cool... no?

 This bridge could use a bit of repair I think...

Wait... what's that? Over there? Do you see it?

 This!!!

It's a Western Lady Slipper orchid!!!

They are kind of rare out here and don't last very long...

 They bloom for a few days and then go...

On top of that... the deer eat the flowers! See the one leaf with it's sad little decapitated stalk?

That is sooo cool! Mama says she's only ever seen them on the small island in the harbour before... so this is good to know that they are closer to home.

Ooohhh... someone has started a heart-rock collection! Nice...

We walk this trail loop several times a week and...

We added this heart-rock a few days ago. Nice, eh?

Have you seen any heart rocks?? We find them everywhere!

Oh, and what's that?

Salmon berry!!

Oh look, a painted rock...

This one says "Smile"...

We have been finding lots of these lately. I'll do another post.

And finally... off in the salal shrubbery...

A Trillium... and a pink one to boot. Most of them are white...

So that's kind of cool.

 Here's a white one... this is the official flower of Ontario...

 And that concludes our floral foray...