Sunday Smiles

Happy Sunday friends!  I'm smiling because things are turning green and some flowers are blooming!  I found this wild flower the other day while I was raking. Isn't it beautiful?!  One of my friends on Instagram told me it was a trillium.  I had never seen one before.  Curious, I read up a little on the flower (good ol' wikipedia and the NYS Dept. of Environment Conservation), and learned a few things.

It has a couple of nicknames: "wake robin," because of it's color and it's appearance in spring, "birthroot," because Native Americans used it in tea to induce labor, and "stinking Benjamin" because it smells of decaying meat, which apparently helps attract carrion flies for pollination.  I'm glad I didn't take a big whiff of it.

It's also illegal to pick in New York.  And I almost raked it up!  Yikes! The reason I didn't see it at first is because of it's "nodding" characteristic, which helps protect it.

Anyways, when I saw it I couldn't get over it's symmetry!  (And now after reading about it, I'm trying to forget that it smells like rotting meat.)  It has three petals, three sepals, three stigmas, and six stamens.  It's so geometric! Hmmm, is it bizarre I'm trying to picture how I can crochet a trillium afghan square?

Have you guys seen this pretty spring flower?  If you do, don't pick it, and don't smell it! Just as every rose has it's thorn, apparently every trillium has it's smell of rotting flesh.  Have a lovely day my friends! Haha!!