Trillium is a genus of about 40-50 species of perennial herbaceous
flowering plantThe flowering plants or angiosperms are the most diverse group of land plants. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of seed plants...
s, native to temperate regions of
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
and
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
. They used to be treated in the family
TrilliaceaeTrilliaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. The family has been recognised as distinct since 1846 when it was recognized; this table for a summarizes the placement of these taxa...
or Trillium family, a part of the
LilialesLiliales is an order of monocotyledonous flowering plants. This order of necessity includes the family Liliaceae, but both the family and the order have had a widely disputed history, with the circumscription varying greatly from one taxonomist to another...
or Lily order. The
AGP IIThe Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, or APG, refers to two international groups of systematic botanists who came together to try to establish a consensus view of the taxonomy of flowering plants that would reflect new knowledge in angiosperm relationships based upon molecular systematics studies...
treats
TrilliaceaeTrilliaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. The family has been recognised as distinct since 1846 when it was recognized; this table for a summarizes the placement of these taxa...
as a synonym of the family
MelanthiaceaeMelanthiaceae is a family of flowering perennial herbs in the Northern Hemisphere. The family has been recognized by relatively few taxonomists, and the circumscription has varied...
. Common names include
trillium,
wakerobin,
Tri Flower, and
birthroot. The above ground parts of Trilliums are
scapesIn botany, scapes are flowering stems, usually leafless, rising from the crown or roots of a plant. Scapes can have a single flower or many flowers, depending on the species...
with three large, leafy
bractIn botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale...
s with the true leaves reduced to underground papery coverings around the
rhizomeIn botany, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
s.
In the east of
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, the most common is
Trillium grandiflorumTrillium grandiflorum, commonly known as white trillium, great white trillium, white wake-robin, or in French as trille blanc, is a perennial monocotyledonous plant in the lily family...
(Large-flowered Trillium).
Trillium is a genus of about 40-50 species of perennial herbaceous
flowering plantThe flowering plants or angiosperms are the most diverse group of land plants. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of seed plants...
s, native to temperate regions of
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
and
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
. They used to be treated in the family
TrilliaceaeTrilliaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. The family has been recognised as distinct since 1846 when it was recognized; this table for a summarizes the placement of these taxa...
or Trillium family, a part of the
LilialesLiliales is an order of monocotyledonous flowering plants. This order of necessity includes the family Liliaceae, but both the family and the order have had a widely disputed history, with the circumscription varying greatly from one taxonomist to another...
or Lily order. The
AGP IIThe Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, or APG, refers to two international groups of systematic botanists who came together to try to establish a consensus view of the taxonomy of flowering plants that would reflect new knowledge in angiosperm relationships based upon molecular systematics studies...
treats
TrilliaceaeTrilliaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. The family has been recognised as distinct since 1846 when it was recognized; this table for a summarizes the placement of these taxa...
as a synonym of the family
MelanthiaceaeMelanthiaceae is a family of flowering perennial herbs in the Northern Hemisphere. The family has been recognized by relatively few taxonomists, and the circumscription has varied...
. Common names include
trillium,
wakerobin,
Tri Flower, and
birthroot. The above ground parts of Trilliums are
scapesIn botany, scapes are flowering stems, usually leafless, rising from the crown or roots of a plant. Scapes can have a single flower or many flowers, depending on the species...
with three large, leafy
bractIn botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale...
s with the true leaves reduced to underground papery coverings around the
rhizomeIn botany, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
s.
In the east of
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, the most common is
Trillium grandiflorumTrillium grandiflorum, commonly known as white trillium, great white trillium, white wake-robin, or in French as trille blanc, is a perennial monocotyledonous plant in the lily family...
(Large-flowered Trillium). This plant has a large, often white, three-petaled
flowerA flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds...
above three broad
bractIn botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale...
s that look like leaves. The name was given by
LinnaeusCarl Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature...
.
Trillium grandiflorum is often the first wildflower noticed by casual walkers; other spring wildflowers are much less apparent.
In western
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, a typical species is
Trillium ovatumTrillium ovatum, the Western Wake Robin or Western White Trillium, is a member of the Trilliaceae family. It occurs in parts of the western United States and western Canada, usually in rich forest...
(Western Trillium) also with white flowers, that slowly turn into a shade of purple in the middle of spring.
Picking Trillium for their flower can seriously injure the plant. The three leaves (more correctly leafy bracts) below the flower are the plant's only ability to produce food stores and a picked trillium can take many years to recover. For this reason in many areas, e.g.
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Wisconsin,
MinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
, and
WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the...
, it is illegal to pick and/or transplant trilliums from public lands without a permit from the State.
While it is a popular belief that it is illegal to pick the common
Trillium grandiflorum (white trillium) in
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
, in reality they are only protected in provincial parks and land owned by conservation authorities
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/643186. However, the rare
Trillium flexipesTrillium flexipes, the Bent Trillium or Drooping Trillium, is a spring-flowering perennial which is most common in the midwestern United States. Scattered populations are found as far east as Philadelphia and as far south as Alabama. However, it is an endangered plant species in Canada and is rare...
(drooping trillium) is protected by law in Ontario
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca:81/ISYSquery/IRLCDBD.tmp/1/doc, because of its very small Canadian population.
Trillium is one of many plants whose seeds are spread by
antAnts are social insects of the family Formicidae , and along with the related wasps and bees, they belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants...
s and
miceA mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. The American white-footed mouse and the deer mouse also sometimes live in houses. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common...
. At maturity, the base and core of the Trillium ovary turns soft and spongy. Trillium seeds have a fleshy organ called an
elaiosomeElaiosomes are fleshy structures that are attached to the seeds of many plant species. The elaiosome is rich in lipids and proteins, and may be variously shaped. Many plants have elaiosomes to attract ants, which take the seed to their nest and feed the elaiosome to their larvae...
that attracts ants. The ants extract the seeds from the decaying ovary and take them to their nest, where they eat the elaiosomes and put the seeds in their garbage, where they can be protected until they
germinateGermination is the process in which a seed or spore emerges from a period of dormancy. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. However, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, for example the growth of hyphae from fungal...
. They also get the added bonus of growing in a medium made richer by the ant garbage.
Some trilliums have a flower which is bent downward, below the leaves.
A white trillium serves as the
emblem and official flower of the
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
province of
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
. It is an official symbol of the
Government of OntarioThe Government of Ontario refers to the provincial government of the province of Ontario. Its powers and structure are set out in the Constitution Act, 1867....
. The large white trillium is the official wildflower of Ohio.
In a 1918 publication,
Joseph E. MeyerJoseph Ernest Meyer was a prominent citizen, botanist and millionaire from the Northwest Indiana community. He was the founder of the Indiana Botanic Gardens, Bank Calumet and Meyer Publishing...
called it "Beth Root" (probably a corruption of "birthroot") and claimed that an astringent tonic derived from the root was useful in controlling bleeding and diarrhea.
External links