107. Fringecup

Fringecup is one of my favourite native plants.  The lush basal rosette and strange recurved, filigree petals are subtle, unusual and elegant.  It is, however, the perfume that these flowers produce that makes Tellima grandiflora so rewarding.  This perfume brings back strong memories of my days as a park naturalist.  The hill behind the visitor centre at Goldstream Provincial Park was covered in Fringecup and its perfume was a fixture during the busy days of spring school programs.
Fringcup is a member of the saxifrage family and it is the only species in the genus.  This makes the latin name (which means large flowered Tellima) sort of silly, since there is only one kind of Tellima. 

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