Trillium
We have a singular one
in our back garden
at the foot of the elm.
Each spring it rises
in a trio of tiers:
leaves, sepals, petals.
It offers a time-lapse
waltz of color change:
white satin, berry pink, ash.
Leslie Schultz
I first learned about these woodland flowers when I was a child in Oregon. When we moved to Northfield, we planted one at the base of our American Elm. Both are still healthy! Our trillium should be blooming in a few weeks, and this year I intend to take some photographs of it when it is fully pink. (The first and second images are from our garden. The middle image was taken at the Northfield Post Office.) Until I was able to observe this single plant, I did not know how the starlight-white of the new trillium bloom turns pink as it ages. Botanically, I read that this results from self-generated anthocyanins–triggered by stress or aging–with the goal of reclaiming and conserving the nutrients in the petals that the trillium is throwing away. I don’t fully understand that mechanism, but I find myself wondering about the way humans seem to move oppositely along the color spectrum–from rosy baby to white-haired elder.
As evidence, I submit the following from a dozen years ago! Below is an image taken at Village on the Cannon. Julia and I are waiting for our Spanish lesson with Susan Hvistendahl and celebrating that a trio of my photographs are on the wall. Today, I note that my face then was rosier, my hair less threaded with white just a decade ago.
Happy Saturday! LESLIE
