Listings: Endangered, Michigan, Ohio; Threatened, Kentucky
The Plant’s Story
Painted trillium is a rare and delicate spring woodland wildflower. Its range extends from eastern Canada southward through the Smoky Mountains. They like cool, moist, acidic woodlands. The most well-known trillium, Trillium grandiflorum, is a sure sign of spring, and can often be seen carpeting moist deciduous florest floors both on hillsides and in lowlands in large numbers. The painted trillium is more secretive, seen near the base of large deciduous trees or tucked into rock-strewn nooks.
The Artist’s Story: Anne Marie Carney
Growing up in Ontario, Canada there was an abundance of Trillium grandiflorum and Trillium erectum. However, I never saw the elusive Trillium undulatum. Finding an informative website called Asheville Natural, I called Fiona Dudley its creator. The website is a guide to native wildflowers and other aspects of the natural world in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Fiona helped me to find all the trilliums along a hiking trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway, near Asheville, NC. In the studio, after an indepth rendering in graphite pencil on watercolor paper, I used fine pen and ink pens and colored pencil to complete the piece.
More of the plant’s story and the artist’s story can be found in the exhibit catalog, available at the exhibition venues or online from the ASBA.
