Some scenes along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel, just before the big spring show begins.
-
The Forest Awakens
-
No Golf
It is a narrow trail along a precipitous wooded hillside, but Fox Chapel is still the kind of neighborhood where you have to specify “NO GOLF.” This is the south entrance to the Trillium Trail, which can be found on Hemlock Hollow Road, which used to bear the slightly embarrassing name of Squaw Run Road.
-
Trillium Time on the Trillium Trail
The Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel is named for the vast drifts of trilliums that grow in the woods there. There are two species: the Great White Trillium, Trillium grandiflorum, and the Wake-Robin, Trillium erectum. The Great White is, as you might expect, white (though occasionally pale pink); the Wake-Robin has several color forms, of which red is the usual in most of its range, but white dominates in the Pittsburgh area.
Father Pitt’s best pictures of wildflowers always end up at Flora Pittsburghensis, which you should certainly see right now if you like spring flowers.
Great White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).
White, red, pink, and yellow forms of the Wake-Robin (Trillium erectum).
-
Squaw Run, Fox Chapel
A view on the Squaw Run in Fox Chapel, just as fall begins.
-
Salamander Trail, Fox Chapel
In early September, countless thousands of Wingstem flowers (Actinomeris alternifolia) line the Salamander Trail in Fox Chapel. Wingstem can grow up to ten feet high when it’s happy. This picture is how old Pa Pitt always wants to remember late summer.
