Intermission -- Wildflower Alert !

The trilliums are now blooming in the western Montana woods!  Although they do this every year, it's always good news.  I'm not the only one that considers the trillium the prettiest wildflower in the forest, lots of people do, Ontario even has it as their official Provincial flower.

If you decide to go looking for yourself, look in shaded places, along small creeks, or even shaded road banks, they like it cool and moist.  Be careful with them, as you would be with anything delicate and beautiful.  You can pick a flower if you need to, but try not to disturb the leaves or the fibrous roots, that may kill the plant.  Botanists say it takes seven years for a plant to go from seed to blooming in greenhouse conditions, and probably longer in the wild.  

Speaking of seeds, the trillium relies on ants to spread its seeds around.  It attracts an ant by coating each seed with elaiosomes  - we'll call it "chocolate" -  ants love "chocolate" so they haul the seeds away and stash them in a hole in the ground to enjoy later - and then they forget where they put it.  Seven or more years later - a new trillium blooms.

Do yourself a favor, go out in the woods on a trillium hunt, when you find a patch, you'll remember the day a long time.  The blooming will be going on until around Mothers Day.  

If trilliums are not your thing, the shooting stars, glacier lilies, buttercups, springbeauties, bluebells, yellow bells and more every day are doing their "blooming best."  It's a feast for the eyes out there.