The Trillium also known as Trinity Flower and since today is Trinity Sunday, the Great White Trillium is the perfect picture for today. While St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, others have used the Trillium since every part was threefold. The leaves are three, the petals  are three, and the sepals are three.

Trinity Flower

The white trillium might not be a flower showing pretty colors, but the white blossoms do stand out against the green and brown forest floor in the spring.

And they stand out too well for the deer. Trilliums are a favored food of white-tailed deer. Indeed if trilliums are available deer will seek these plants, with a preference for T. grandiflorum like the one pictured, to the exclusion of others. When deer foraging intensity increases, the plant becomes shorter each growing season due to the reduction in energy reserves from less photosynthetic production.

My poor trilliums where hit hard last year by the deer and it will be a miracle if any of them will blossom this year.

White Trillium