Pacific or Western Trillium

Walking in northwestern woods in the springtime feels a little like entering Jurassic Park — giant horsetails, brackens, ferns, devil’s club and other prehistoric-looking plants are bursting into leaf and bloom all along the trails. Among the riot of green this time of year you’ll also find the simple yet elegant trillium with its repeating motif of threes; leaves, petals, and sepals.

Western trillium is found in forested areas of Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta. They bloom between March and June. The flowers, which sit on an upright stalk, open a pure white with fuzzy yellow stamens. The flowers age to pinks, reds and purples until the petals drop. They usually appear in drifts in low to mid-elevation moist forests, a sign of their interconnected and creeping rootstocks, or rhizomes, which send up new shoots. The oval, pointed leaves form a distinctive whorl of three under the flower. Plant stalks typically reach 12 to 18 inches in height.

 Trilliums also develop a distinctive egg-like green seed pod capsule (hence the “ovatum” in the name) filled with as many as 150 seeds. These pods are oil-rich and thus a favorite food for ants, yellow jackets, and deer. Ants are reputed to disperse as much as 30% of the seeds of spring-flowering plants in the dark woods, which helps relocate them to more auspicious places to start new plants.

Native peoples used an extract of trillium root as an eye medicine. They also made poultices to treat skin ailments.

Did you know: Trilliums are widely known as “wake-robins” because they bloom around the time robins return in the spring.

Article & Photo by Trink Schurian