It is that time of year once again. With warmer temperatures come the beautiful blooms of our region’s spring wildflowers. Whether you are in your favorite park, nature preserve or even your own backyard, there are blooms to discover all around us.

Great Parks is fortunate to have healthy populations of native wildflowers in many of its parks, including bloodroot, cutleaf toothwort, Dutchman’s breeches, large-flowered bellwort, rue anemone, trout lily, Virginia bluebells and a variety of trilliums just to name a few.

The rare and interesting yellow trillium (Trillium luteum) found in one of Great Park’s nature preserves, which is aptly named Trillium Trails, is unusual to see for many Ohio residents. Yellow trillium, or yellow wakerobin as it is sometimes called, usually doesn’t grow any closer to Ohio than central Kentucky. It is sometimes confused with the occasionally occurring yellow variant of our more common toadshade trillium (Trillium sessile), but the true yellow trillium is taller, the flowers can have a faint lemon scent and it has much broader leaves than the toad-shade trillium.

Whether you are interested in spotting rare native species or just enjoying the wildflowers that are coming up in your yard or nearby park, it’s time to get out there and enjoy this beautiful spring!

Doug Stevenson, Naturalist, Glenwood Gardens