The nodding trillium has blossoms that hide under the leaves, which may be why my deer don’t see the white to eat them or the leaves have a different taste as the nodding trilliums survive in my woods where the great white trilliums get grazed off.
Nodding Trillium
The woods at the farm were filled with the great white trillium which is easily spotted, but this year none of my had blossoms as they have been eaten off by the deer too many years in a row and I only some leaves which emerged but no blossoms. The only variety of trilliums I have blooming this year are the Nodding Trilliums, which hide from the deer as they ‘nod’ or hang underneath the large three leaves. The way they hide also makes it hard to photo since you have to be on the ground looking up at it (or cheat and tip the stem over to see the blossom better).
Hiding Blossoms
The nodding trilliums have a little better chance of keeping their blossoms dry since they hang underneath the leaves. They also seem to better survive becoming a snack for the deer which wander across my lawn since the flowers are more hidden and not as showy.
Nodding Trilliums Hiding
The deer wandering around my yard last evening was probably looking for more great white trilliums to eat but they will be out of luck since this is only one left in my woods.
The Surviving Trillium
It was nice not waking up to a white lawn today, after the snow on Saturday morning and the heavy frost Sunday morning, but some white is missing as the deer have eaten all of my Great White Trilliums. The flowers and leaves are gone with only a stem remaining. Apparently the Nodding Trillium leaves don’t taste as good as the deer eat them or there is no white blossom drawing attention to them as the blossom of the Nodding Trillium hangs underneath the leaves and you don’t notice the flowers.
Elusive Blossom
On a very warm May day, it is hard to think about May snow storms that can occur but hopefully we will avoid that this year and the only white on the ground is from wildflowers. The Great White Trillium is blooming and I was able to get a couple of pictures before the deer eat them. Trilliums are a favorite of deer and the blossoms get smaller if the deer continue to graze on them and some of mine which have been eaten several years in a row won’t have blossoms this year.They don’t bother the Nodding Trilliums very much as the blossom hangs underneath but the large blossom of these are hard to miss.
Surviving Great White Trilliums
The solitary flower of a Nodding Trillium hangs underneath the leaves so it isn’t spotted very easily (and maybe why the deer don’t eat as many of these trilliums as the other type) but it also makes it difficult to take a picture of them as the camera has to be on the ground shooting upward. With the probably frost tonight, the Nodding Trillium probably will want to keep its head covered under the leaves.
Finding the Nodding Trillium
The Nodding Trilliums are blooming, although it is easy to miss the blossoms since they hang under the leaves. But hiding under the leaves, don’t always protect them from the deer seeing them and eating the plant. And it is hard to get a picture of the blossoms since have to get down and look up. Trillium cernuum is also known as Nodding Wakerobin and Whip-poor-will flower. The Drooping Trillium is very similar and hard to tell the ‘drooping’ ones from the ‘nodding’ ones.
Nodding Trillium
I don’t know if the Great White Trilliums have finally opened up, as these three and all the other the Trillium grandiflorums have disappeared along my path to the pond. There are some stems in spots, or like these three, no evidence left that there had been a trillium growing there except for the photo taken a few days ago.
Great White Trillium as well as other trilliums are a favored food of white-tailed deer. Indeed if trilliums are available deer will seek these plants, with a preference for Great White Trillium, to the exclusion of others. If they keep eating the same trilliums each year, it can lead to extinction of those plants along my path and then the Nodding Trilliums will have to be the new favorite deer snack.
Great White Trillium No More
A white flower might not be too showy compared to yellow, pinks and blues, but any wildflower, even a white Trillium, would look better than white snow drifts.
Spring White
