NOTABLE FLOWERS

Family: Berberodaceae (barberry family) Habitat: Rich forests Flowering: April to May. Blooms before leaves unfurl. Related species: Caulophyllum thalictroides (blue cohosh) The small purple-fringed orchid is a frilly little showpiece with many flowerettes bunched together and looking like a cluster of pale purple butterflies. “It was all by itself in a kind of ditch on a fairly major trail called No. 3,” Delsey said. “But it was a trail that they were doing some rehabilitation on and this was just at the side, off the main part of the trail . ... There was just one. That was, I think, three years ago now. We’ve gone back every year; we have never seen it again.” The park is a good spot to see pink lady’s slippers. These are big, strong orchids with an odd bulbous flower. “Sometimes you can stumble on maybe 30 of them within 10 yards of each other.” “Everybody know the ordinary trillium, the white trillium. There’s also a red trillium . ... But then there’s also something called a painted trillium. Right in the centre of each of the three petals there are little lines, pinkish,” that look as though someone painted them on. They are much rarer. You’ll see them occasionally . ... And there is another trillium that we’ve never been able to find, a yellow one.” Another member of the orchid family (the world has some 25,000 orchids) is called ladies’ tresses. Delsey has found some of them near the edge of Black Lake. He has found a water-loving relative of St. John’s wort, with a tiny pink bud. He has found it with the bud, but never an open flower. Delsey is still hoping to find another rarity, an odd version of a common spring flower called the trout lily. The regular trout lily is a cheerful, simple yellow flower that is easy to find in early spring, when trees do not yet have leaves and the forest floor is flooded with sunshine. “Those spring ephemerals (early spring flowers) are my favourite, and they also tend to be the most native,” he said. Many flowers commonly found in Ontario today are imports either from other countries or other regions.