I took this after a storm, so there’s a bit of debris. But it’s a wildflower growing in the wild, so it shouldn’t look manicured, right?

According to Wikipedia, the trillium grandiflorum is “native to North America and Asia. Picking Trillium for their flower can seriously injure the plant. The three leaves (more correctly, leafy bracts) below the flower are the plant’s only ability to produce food stores and a picked trillium can take many years to recover. For this reason, in many areas, e.g. Michigan,[1] New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota,[2] and Washington, it is illegal to pick and/or transplant trilliums from public lands without a permit from the State.”

Who knew?

It also goes on to say that the seeds are spread by ants and mice. Um, ewwww. No wonder they’re rare–we have cats in the neighborhood.