_Trillium nivale_
_Flowers_--Solitary, pure white, about 1 in. long, on an erect or curved
peduncle, from a whorl of 3 leaves at summit of stem. Three spreading,
green, narrowly oblong sepals; 3 oval or oblong petals; 6 stamens, the
anthers about as long as filaments; 3 slender styles stigmatic along
inner side. _Stem_: 2 to 6 in. high, from a short, tuber-like rootstock.
_Leaves_: 3 in a whorl below the flower, 1 to 2 in. long, broadly oval,
rounded at end, on short petioles. _Fruit_: A 3-lobed reddish berry,
about 1/2 in. diameter, the sepals adhering.
_Preferred Habitat_--Rich, moist woods and thickets.
_Flowering Season_--March-May.
_Distribution_--Pennsylvania, westward to Minnesota and Iowa, south
to Kentucky.
Only this delicate little flower, as white as the snow it sometimes must
push through to reach the sunshine melting the last drifts in the
leafless woods, can be said to wake the robins into song; a full chorus
of feathered love-makers greets the appearance of the more widely
distributed, and therefore better known, species.
By the rule of three all the trilliums, as their name implies,
regulate their affairs. Three sepals, three petals, twice three
stamens, three styles, a three-celled ovary, the flower growing out
from a whorl of three leaves, make the naming of wake-robins a simple
matter to the novice.
One of the most chastely beautiful of our native wild flowers--so lovely
that many shady nooks in English rock-gardens and ferneries contain
imported clumps of the vigorous plant--is the Large-flowered Wake-Robin,
or White Wood Lily (_T. grandiflorum_). Under favorable conditions the
waxy, thin, white, or occasionally pink, strongly veined petals may
exceed two inches; and in Michigan a monstrous form has been found. The
broadly rhombic leaves, tapering to a point, and lacking petioles, are
seated in the usual whorl of three, at the summit of the stem, which may
attain a foot and a half in height; from the centre the decorative
flower arises on a long peduncle.
Certainly the commonest trillium in the East, although it thrives as far
westward as Ontario and Missouri, and south to Georgia, is the Nodding
Wake-Robin (_T. cernuum_), whose white or pinkish flower droops from its
peduncle until it is all but hidden under the whorl of broadly rhombic,
tapering leaves. The wavy margined petals, about as long as the
sepals--that is to say, half an inch long or over--curve backward at
maturity. One finds the plant in bloom from April to June, according to
the climate of its long range.
* * * * *
Perhaps the most strikingly beautiful member of the tribe is the Painted
Trillium (_T. undulatum_ or _T. erythrocarpum_). At the summit of the
slender stem, rising perhaps only eight inches, or maybe twice as high,
this charming flower spreads its long, wavy-edged, waxy-white petals
veined and striped with deep pink or wine color. The large ovate leaves,
long-tapering to a point, are rounded at the base into short petioles.
The rounded, three-angled, bright red, shining berry is seated in the
persistent calyx. With the same range as the nodding trillium’s, the
Painted Wake-Robin comes into bloom nearly a month later--in May and
June--when all the birds are not only wide awake, but have finished
courting, and are busily engaged in the most serious business of life.