“It’s life that matters, nothing but life—the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Oddly enough, I’ve gone out looking for these and stepped over them, not making teh connection. Yet, this past weekend while photographing a group of Wake-Robins, I noticed this fuzzy broad leafed plant with a little ‘bud’ or nodule at the base. Curious, I took a closer look and noticed that the ‘bud’ was actually an unopened flower. When I got back home I looked at one of my plant books and discovered that this was, if fact, the elusive Wild Ginger I had been looking for.

So, today at lunch, I made the quick walk to the forest and re-visited the plants, to be pleasantly surprised that the flowers were in bloom. How I could have missed them in the past still puzzles me, but as I looked around, I noticed that this small grove  is quite limited in size. I’ll have to get back out on the weekend and see if I can find some more.

In the meantime, I am quite happy to have found them and be able to document their unusual blossoms, which are quite firm and bulb-like. The petals, similar to the Wake-Robin are a dark red to maroon colour, similar to flesh. This seems to be a common trait with some early blooming wildflowers which are pollinated by flies. The flower looks like a piece of meat. I did not stoop down to sniff them.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
1/115 sec, f/16.0 ISO 400

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