The wildflower walk on Friday, May 5, 2006 was a success!  The weather was beautiful and the warm, gentle breeze kept the May flies at bay.

There were a total of 14 participants on the walk, not including Doug Williams, ecologist at Wachusett Mountain, who led the walk.  Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.  We started at approximately 8:30 and returned to our cars at approximately 11:00; we hiked Mountain House Trail to High Meadow to Echo Lake and then the access road to Echo Lake and back along Mountain Road to our car! s.

The highlight for many of us was seeing Trillium grandiflorum in glorious bloom.  This was a sighting that I will remember for a long time and definitely something to add to my “official wildflower list” that I keep in my Newcomb’s guide.   It is not a common plant to see in the wild; we also learned that there is some debate about whether it is native to Massachusetts or whether it was introduced.  The three plants in glorious bloom were located some distance off the trail we were on, and Doug actually spied it first with his binoculars.  He allowed a few of us to go off the trail and take a closer look at it when we asked and when most of the group had already progressed down the hill.