#stinking benjamin

A few mementos from a short hike on the Virgin Hemlock Tail this morning. Cold, damp weather has settled into NC West Virginia, but any rain is welcome following an unusually dry winter and spring (opposite of the West Coast). From top: the ever balletic but stinky red trillium (Trillium erectum); long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata); wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), longing for a burst of sun to open its flowers; trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), a ground-hugging shrub in the heath family; early meadow-rue (Thalictrum dioicum); and an Eastern red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus), a terrestrial salamander of rich, damp mountain woods.

Purple trillium (Trillium erectum), also known as red trillium and wake-robin, is a spring perennial with a truly contradictory nature. On the one hand, this trillium produces velvety-red flowers with a sexy, languorous droop and spectacularly-oversized bracts, making it a bit of a show-off in the early April woods. On the other hand, the plant’s flower stinks like hell. It gives off a pungent odor (similar to rotting meat) that attracts its primary pollinators: flies, carrion beetles, and other unsavory suitors. This trait has led to other, less-flattering names: stinking Benjamin, stinking Willie, and wet dog trillium. Smell aside, this trillium is still one of my favorite spring ephemerals. The photos above were taken on the Mon River Trail and the Virgin Hemlock Trail in Coopers Rock State Forest.

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Red trillium