The Painted trillium stands above the forest floor and can be easily seen. It is a native species.
This trillium (click here) has a slender stalk, 8-16 in. high, with a whorl of three, large, blue-green leaves. The flower, white with purple markings, is borne above the leaves on a short, arching stem. Bright-red fruits appear in early fall. This is a perennial plant. The erect, stalked flower has an inverted, pink V at the base of each white, wavy-edged petal.
This is one of the most attractive woodland Trilliums. It is easily recognized by the splash of pink in the center of the white flower.
This trillium (click here) has a slender stalk, 8-16 in. high, with a whorl of three, large, blue-green leaves. The flower, white with purple markings, is borne above the leaves on a short, arching stem. Bright-red fruits appear in early fall. This is a perennial plant. The erect, stalked flower has an inverted, pink V at the base of each white, wavy-edged petal.
This is one of the most attractive woodland Trilliums. It is easily recognized by the splash of pink in the center of the white flower.
By Larry Stritch
Painted trillium (click here) is an herbaceous, long-lived, woodland, perennial wildflower with a broad distribution across New England, New York and Pennsylvania thence south in a narrow band in the Appalachian Mountains from West Virginia and Virginia to the high mountains of Georgia; and in Canada from Ontario, Quebec and the maritime provinces to Nova Scotia.
“Trillium”, from the Latin tri, refers to the flower parts occurring in threes; “llium” from the Latin liliaceous, refers to the funnel-shaped flower; and, “flexipes”, from the Latin undulatum (i.e., wavy) refers to the petals’ wavy margins.
Trillium undulatum has a short, thick rhizome from which a sheath (highly modified leaf called a cataphyll) enclosed scape (stalk of the inflorescence) emerges from the ground to 10 to 45 centimeters tall. It has a single, terminal flower. Leaves (actually bracts) are three, dark green infused with maroon, petiolate, lanceolate, acuminate, 5 to 17 centimeters long and 4 to 12 centimeters wide. The flower is pedicellate, with the pedicel ascending to erect. Sepals are three, dark red to dark maroon green, spreading, 1.5 to 4 centimeters long, and 0.5 to 1.0 centimeters wide. Petals are three, wavy-margined, white with a central red to reddish purple splotch at the base, lanceolate to obovate, acuminate, 1.4 to 1.8 centimeters long. Fruit is a scarlet, three-angled berry, 1 to 2 centimeters long.
Trillium undulatum flowers from early to late spring (dependant on latitude and/or elevation). The species occurs in mesic, northern hardwoods, mixed conifer-hardwood forests, to pinewoods and high-elevation red spruce forests in the central Appalachian Mountains in very acidic humus-rich soils.
