Friday, June 12, 2009

28. Starflower


It's been a cold, wet spring here in New England.  I have several photographs of unidentified wildflowers I'm slowly trying to make my way through: I was pretty sure I knew the common name of this one, and, unlike several others I thought similarly about, I was right, for once.  Around here we have the Northern or Eastern Starflower (Trientalis borealis), whose beauty is hard to show with my camera.

The Starflower has seven petals that form the shape that gives the plant its name, and have lanceolate leaves arranged in a whorled pattern.  A woodland perennial, it is common to a large swath of the eastern and central portions of both the U.S. and Canada.