I was excited to read that these flowers are not found in the UK, Europe or Australia, so sharing these photos with my family in Ireland and Australia was fun! I have noted that many of the flora and fauna found in these Blue Ridge Mountains is also found in part of Asia. I began my journey to become a Virginia Master Naturalist so I could identify what it was that was all around me in this beautiful Commonwealth!
Wiki says this about Trillium:
Trillium
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
For other uses, see Trillium
(disambiguation).
Trillium
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See
"Species of Trillium"
below.
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Trillium (trillium, wakerobin, tri flower, birthroot) is a genus of about
40–50 species of springephemeral perennials, native to temperate regions of North America and Asia.
It used to be treated in the family Trilliaceae or
Trillium family, a part of the Liliales or
Lily order. The AGP II treats Trilliaceae as
a synonym of
the family Melanthiaceae.
The above ground parts of Trilliums are scapes with
three large, leaf-like bracts with the true leaves reduced to
underground papery coverings around the rhizomes.
Typical species are Trillium grandiflorum (Large-flowered Trillium) in eastern
North America and Trillium ovatum(Western Trillium). Both
have white flowers that turn pink as they age.
Picking a trillium seriously injures the
plant by preventing the leaf-like bracts from producing food for the next year.
A plant takes many years to recover. For this reason in Michigan,[1] Minnesota[2] and New York[3] 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 Ontario, in reality they are only protected in
provincial parks and land owned by conservation authorities.[4] However,
the rare Trillium flexipes (drooping trillium) is protected by
law in Ontario,[5] because
of its very small Canadian population.
Trillium is one of many
plants whose seeds are spread by ants.
At maturity, the base and core of the trillium ovary turns
soft and spongy. Trillium seeds have a fleshy organ called an elaiosome 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 germinate in
a rich growing medium.
Trillium used as the official symbol for the Province of Ontario.
A white trillium serves as the emblem and
official flower of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is an official symbol of the Government of Ontario.
The large white trillium is the official wildflower of Ohio.[6]
In a 1918 publication, Joseph E. Meyer 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
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