drooping trillium
Trillium flexipes
Ants are the trillium's primary transporters; they carry seeds to their nests to eat the oily elaiosome attachment, effectively planting the seeds in nutrient-rich refuse piles.
- Scientific name
- Trillium flexipes
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Liliopsida › Liliales › Melanthiaceae › Trillium
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- forest
- Habitat
- Rich, moist deciduous forests and floodplains, particularly those with alkaline or limestone-derived soils.
- Diet
- Photosynthetic; produces energy from sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide.
- Range
- Midwestern United States, Appalachian Mountains, Southern Ontario, Canada
- Size
- 20-50 cm in height; flowers 3-5 cm wide
- Lifespan
- 30-50 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Overbrowsing by white-tailed deer, habitat fragmentation, and competition from invasive species like garlic mustard.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. Observe without touching; this plant is extremely fragile. Do not pick the flowers, as removing the leaves prevents the plant from storing energy, often killing the slow-growing rhizome. Stay on marked trails to avoid crushing dormant bulbs.
Trillium flexipes , the nodding wakerobin , bent trillium , or drooping trillium , is a spring-flowering perennial that is most common in the midwestern United States. Scattered populations are found as far east as Philadelphia and as far south as Alabama, as well as in the Canadian Province of Ontario. However, it is an endangered plant species in Canada and is rare throughout its Canadian range so that it is protected by law in Ontario. This species is variable,...
Photo: Michael J. Papay, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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