Taken on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive at Sleeping Bear Dunes. We were there yesterday. Light was good, with overcast sky, but I fought the wind quite a bit, so this isn't as sharp as I'd like. The scenic drive was just teaming with wildflowers, especialy trillium. Didn't even have to walk anywhere to find flowers to shoot. But I saw only one plant with the green markings. Anyone know what variety of trillium this is?
Beautiful trillium image. That one of the more beautiful green stripes I've seen. We had a discussion about green-striped trillium last year around this time. The short story is that this is a mutant variety of T. grandiflorum.The forum thread can be found here.
Thanks for the link to the other thread, Chuck. Interesting information. If it is an aberrant thing, I hope it doesn't cause damage to the others. I only saw one plant like this, and I looked at a LOT of Trillium yesterday. It's sad that something so pretty could be harmful to the rest of the species.
Nice image Kathy. I agree a little more sharpness would be great, however it still is lovely. Something I have not seen let alone captured, nice to see it.
I've never made it up to Pierce Stocking Drive in the spring and need to make it a point to do so. Did you take M22 from Manistee? A few years ago, just north of Onekema, there were thousands of Trilliums lining the road side!
Hi Toni,
Because we were staying in Leland, we came up M37, to Traverse City, to Leland. Then south 22 to 109. So, we came at it from the north. But it look like 31 to 22 would be a good route, especially if you wanted to see some other things, too. You would go past Point Betsie Lighthouse, which is cool to photograph, too. I was just amazed at all the wildflowers we saw.
It's a beautiful drive, Kathy. Normally a 3.5 hour drive to Sleeping Bear from Spring Lake, it can take me 5 hours or more to get there. Too many photo ops...Pentwater, Frankfort, Point Betsie. You would enjoy it!
Toni, I agree - the drive up 31 is great. We've done the Circle Tour drive, mostly stopping for the lighthouses and had a blast. We've made a day of it, usually on our way up north.
I like this one, Kathy, and I really like the report of all the spring wildflowers on the way up there. There are too many opportunities in early May to catch everything! Thanks for posting a lovely image and the story behind it!
Discussion
11 repliesBeautiful trillium image. That one of the more beautiful green stripes I've seen. We had a discussion about green-striped trillium last year around this time. The short story is that this is a mutant variety of T. grandiflorum.The forum thread can be found here.
I've never made it up to Pierce Stocking Drive in the spring and need to make it a point to do so. Did you take M22 from Manistee? A few years ago, just north of Onekema, there were thousands of Trilliums lining the road side!
Because we were staying in Leland, we came up M37, to Traverse City, to Leland. Then south 22 to 109. So, we came at it from the north. But it look like 31 to 22 would be a good route, especially if you wanted to see some other things, too. You would go past Point Betsie Lighthouse, which is cool to photograph, too. I was just amazed at all the wildflowers we saw.