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Plant Showcase

Western Trillium

(Wake-robin)

A welcome sight in early spring, the Western Trillium, or wake-robins of the Lily family (Liliaceae), is native from British Columbia to central California. The name Trillium is supposedly derived from the number three in Latin – tres – because of the three leaves and three petals typical of this plant. Ovatum refers to the oval-shaped leaves.

The flower has three long narrow sepals alternating with the three broad white petals that turn pink to mauve to purple as the season progresses. Six stamens with yellow pollen-packed anthers cluster around the three-parted stigma in the shallow throat of the flowers. The blooms open anywhere from March to May, and the fruit is a winged greenish capsule with numerous seeds.

The Trillium grows best in moist but well-drained, deep, humus-rich, preferably acidic to neutral soil and can be seen blanketing a forest floor in springtime.

It grows as perennial herbs from an underground root-bearing stem called a rhizome. The rhizome grows beneath the ground horizontally but turns up at the tips. Old stems leave behind scars along the rhizome. Stems, their tips enclosed in new leaves, appear above the ground from February to April and rise to 8”-20” high. Three large, broadly rounded leaves top the stem, providing a lush green foil for a single flower. Untitled-4 copy.jpg - 21354 Bytes

Trilliums can also be grown from gathered seeds sown in the fall in normal gritty potting soil. They will readily germinate in the Pacific Northwest if left outside over the winter. The Western Trillium has been a native plant that has been protected officially and unofficially for many years. The Thompson People of the Fraser Canyon Thompson River area used it as eye medicine. Dried root powder or root infusion was applied to treat sore eyes and help remove foreign matter. Untitled-5 copy.jpg - 30933 Bytes

The Trillium ovatum is just one example of the Trillium family, also known as Trinity Flower, Wake-Robin or Wood Lily. To learn more, see Liliaceae, genus of about 30 species of rhizomatous, deciduous perennials found mainly in woodlands and scrub in North America, with a few species in the W. Himalayas and N.W.Asia.

Short excerpt from Things I Love To Do

By Sybil Beulah Maus

I love to walk in dripping woods
When raindrops drum on leaves,
Where sodden footsteps tells of streams
Beneath the roots of trees;
Where violets grow, and snow-white trilliums
Lift their heads in countless millions
…In spring.
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Written by Nibbs 404 Page Not Found