Are you noticing something odd in this flower? David Lewis grew this White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) from seed and this year, he and Ellen noticed for the first time, that it has four leaves, four sepals, and four petals. This is highly unusual for a Trillium, where all parts should come in threes, but not totally unheard of… The big question for David and Ellen was, whether this unusual growth is genetically determined (in which case they were wondering why they had not noticed it in earlier years) or whether something went wrong with the development of the plant only this year.
David went back into his photo archive and found this image of the same plant in 2017. Clearly, the “four-ness” is not genetically determined, but due to some unusual development this year. When I looked a little more into this, I found a blog posting on Tryon Naturalist Notes that was dedicated to “Quirky Quadliums”. Please check that link for a more detailed discussion of “nature’s mistakes” in Trillium and beyond. Thanks to David for sharing this fun observation and the images.
Progress of the Seasons Journal 