It's hard to believe you could find a place like Rockwoods Reservation in busy west St. Louis County. But it's a sample of the Ozarks right in the middle of the suburbs.
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Scientific Name
Trillium sessile
Family
Melanthiaceae (bunchflowers); sometimes placed in the Liliaceae or the Trilliaceae
Description
Wake robin, or trillium, has a single flower with 3 petals and 3 sepals. There are only 3 leaves, which are stalkless and subtend the solitary flower. The petal color varies in this common woodland spring wildflower, but it is most commonly brownish or maroon.
Habit: As with other trilliums, this species is perennial, and there is a single flower per stem, with a single whorl of 3 leaves at the tip and a single flower at the top of the plant. The root is a short rhizome.
The flowers are solitary, arising stemless from a whorl of leaves. There are 3 sepals, which spread flat or ascend at flowering time, and 3 upright petals, which can be brown, brownish purple, maroon, brick red, brownish yellow, greenish yellow, greenish, or a mixture with green. The flowers of this species have a fetid aroma.
Blooms April–June.
The leaves are 3, in a whorl at the top of a bare stalk, ovate, pointed, sessile (lacking leaf stalks), dark green with or without grayish mottling.
The fruits are many-seeded berries.
Similar species: Missouri has 7 species in the genus Trillium. The ones most similar are the following:
- Purple trillium, or bloody butcher or purple wake robin (T. recurvatum), has the sepals curving downward as the flower opens, and the leaves narrow so they have a distinct, short stem (the leaves are not sessile). It is common in eastern Missouri, scattered in central and southern Missouri.
- Green trillium (T. viride) has green or yellowish-green petals, sometimes with a purplish tinge. The flowers of this species have a musty or spicy odor similar to that of rotting apples. The leaves are blunt or only broadly pointed and are often somewhat mottled. It is scattered in the eastern half of Missouri, both north and south of the Missouri River. Greenish-flowering specimens of T. sessile are often confused with T. viride.
- Green trillium (T. viridescens) has green or yellowish-green petals, sometimes with a purplish tinge. The leaves are sharp-pointed and are usually not mottled. It is scattered mostly in the southwestern Ozarks, with another population in Jefferson County.
Other Common Names
Toadshade
Size
Height: 8–12 inches.
Where To Find
Statewide; common in all but the northern third of the state; apparently absent from the Bootheel lowlands.
Habitat and Conservation
Occurs in moist, rich bottomland forests and moist upland woodlands on lower slopes and bottoms of valleys and ravines.
Status
Native Missouri wildflower.
Human Connections
Some species of trilliums were used historically in herbal medicine, but the most common human use of these flowers today is in gardening.
Trilliums are popular in shade gardens but are difficult to grow from seed. This has led to unethical collecting from the wild. However, many plants do not survive transplanting. Please be aware of the sources for your plants, and insist on nursery-grown plants from cultivated stocks. Please don’t collect from the wild. Instead, buy from reputable native wildflower nurseries.
Ecosystem Connections
The fetid aroma of these flowers presumably helps them attract flies, beetles, and other pollinators.
Trilliums use their leaves to produce energy to store in their rhizomes, so that they have strength to bloom again the next spring. Because trilliums only have 3 leaves, which are so close to the flowers, picking trillium flowers removes the plant’s ability to feed itself.
Botanists have long debated the relationships among the plants traditionally considered lilies. Formerly placed in the lily family or sometimes in a separate trillium family, this plant and its close relatives are currently in a family called the Melanthiaceae (mel-anth-ee-AY-cee-ee).
- Breaking up the lily family into several other families means they are now organized according to their true genetic relationships. But if you try to describe the differences among these families using the actual forms of the plants, it is very difficult, since they share so many characteristics.
- Globally, there are about 17 genera in the Melanthiaceae.
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Caption
The flower of wake robin, or trillium, has 3 petals and 3 sepals, and 3 leaves that subtend the solitary flower. The petal color varies in this common woodland spring wildflower, but it is most commonly brownish or maroon.
Credit
Julianna Schroeder
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Caption
Wake robin in Franklin County, Missouri.
Credit
Submitted by Warren Joyce
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Caption
Early growth trillium in Cape Girardeau County. Missouri has 7 species of wake robins (in genus Trillium).
Credit
Submitted by Russell Grammer
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One of the most notable characteristics of trilliums is that their parts come in threes: three petals, three sepals, and three leaves. Yet sometimes abnormal forms appear. This individual has its parts in fours. Nature is full of wonders!
Credit
Julianna Schroeder
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Where to See Species
Hungry Mother Conservation Area was purchased in April of 1962.
About Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants in Missouri
A very simple way of thinking about the green world is to divide the vascular plants into two groups: woody and nonwoody (or herbaceous). But this is an artificial division; many plant families include some species that are woody and some that are not. The diversity of nonwoody vascular plants is staggering! Think of all the ferns, grasses, sedges, lilies, peas, sunflowers, nightshades, milkweeds, mustards, mints, and mallows — weeds and wildflowers — and many more!