Ontario Wild Flowers: Spring's PromiseOntario wild flowers add color to the still wintry landscape on an Ontario spring day. They appear like magic from out of the melting snow, particularly skunk cabbage, which actually melts snow as it generates its own heat.
Real Trillium are harder to find as they prefer quiet spring woodlands.
Like the Trillium, Trout Lilies are found among the undergrowth of spring woodlands, after the snow has gone and before the leaves come out and hide the forest floor.
Somewhat rarer than Trillium and Trout Lilies, Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a rather dull spring flower that develops into a more interesting 'corn cob' style seed head later in the summer.
Mayapples have a single flower under their large umbrella-like leaves, which prevents them being seen from above. The flower produces a single small 'may apple' that ripens throughout the late spring and early summer. When ripe it's edible but you have to beat the squirrels to them.
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As I mentioned on another page, the Trillium is Ontario's Provincial flower and the places you're most likely to see it are as a symbol on government documents and signs.
In the muddy half of spring, the marshes abound with Marsh Marigolds. Like dandelions on dry land, they have a sunny disposition that cheers the soul at the end of winter when the skiing is past its best and the boating hasn't yet begun.
