Mystery Flora: Red Bracts with Boo

Hello and welcome to our first Mystery Flora at The Orbit! The Friday Mysteries will be ETEV’s version of Frivolous Fridays, in which we do fun things and let the stresses of the week bugger off for just a bit.

This edition of Mystery Flora is brought to you by the kitty Boo. Have I introduced you to Boo?

Image shows Boo, a cat with a white face and belly, with black and white spots and a black mask, sitting on a wooden step beside some plants with large green leaves and tall red bracts.
Mystery Flora I

Boo belongs to my housemate N, and is only with us until the end of the month, because N is leaving us. I haz a sad. Boo is a brilliant cat who loves people and is really fun to hang around with, even if Misha doesn’t think so. She also doesn’t mind modeling with plants, unlike Misha, who gets highly upset when I remove her from civilized things like wooden floors and carpets.

Boo is posing here with something our other housemate S planted. I’m no botanist, but I’m pretty sure those red bits are bracts, not flowers.

Image shows Boo sitting more closely with one of the flowers.
Mystery Flora II

Bracts are basically modified leaves, and they’re not the same as petals. I was fascinated when I found that out. Plants do all kinds of fascinating things!

Image shows a cluster of the
Mystery Flora III

And, of course, S is always bringing something new home and planting it, so I never know what’s going to turn up in our yard next. One thing I’m pretty sure just turned up on its own is this bonus skunk cabbage on the bank of the creek, which you can see just beyond our mystery plants.

Image shows a cluster of the flowers with a blooming skunk cabbage in the background on the bank of the creek.
Mystery Flora IV

Isn’t everything so lovely? Now, hopefully, one of you will know what those red beauties are.

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Mystery Flora: Red Bracts with Boo
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4 thoughts on “Mystery Flora: Red Bracts with Boo

  1. 2

    OK, I’m stumped. Agree with probably bracts, but you’ve got some really exotic stuff growing in that yard. Except the skunk cabbage. And the cute kitty.

  2. 3

    Definitely a trillium. It looks like it could be Trillium kurabayashii, which is native to northern California into Oregon and not native to your area, but having never seen it in person (only in pictures), I could well be wrong as to the species identification.

    The red bits sticking up are true petals, and the reddish parts spreading out just beneath them are true sepals. Trilliums actually do have bracts, but their bracts are the green “leaves” you see below the flowers. (They do have true leaves as well, but these are vestigal non-photosynthetic scale-like structures on the rhizome that never appear above ground.)

    As you can probably tell from the wall of text, I love trilliums – they’re one of my favorite flowers. I can hardly wait until they start blooming in my area!

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