(Trillium) Wakerobin

Trillium (trillium, wakerobin, tri flower, birthroot, birthwort) is a genus of perennial herbaceous flowering plants native to temperate regions of North America and Asia.More than three dozen Trillium species are found in North America, especially in the eastern United States.Less than a dozen species are found in Asia.

The genus was formerly treated in the family Trilliaceae of the Liliales or lily order. The APG III system includes Trillium in tribe Parideae of the family Melanthiaceae.

Description
Plants of this genus are perennial herbs growing from rhizomes. There are three large leaf-like bracts arranged in a whorl about a scape that rises directly from the rhizome. There are no true aboveground leaves but sometimes there are scale-like leaves on the underground rhizome. The bracts are photosynthetic and are sometimes called leaves. The inflorescence is a single flower with three green or reddish sepals and three petals in shades of red, purple, pink, white, yellow, or green. At the center of the flower there are six stamens and three stigmas borne on a very short style, if any. The fruit is fleshy and capsule-like or berrylike. The seeds have large, oily elaiosomes.

Occasionally individuals have four-fold symmetry, with four bracts (leaves), four sepals, and four petals in the blossom.

Species
The genus Trillium has traditionally been divided into two subgenera (with some overlap):

• T. subg. Trillium: member species bear pedicellate flowers (on a short stalk)
• T. subg. Phyllantherum: member species bear sessile flowers (with no stalk)

The subgenus Trillium is considered the more primitive group of species.

Ecology
Trilliums are myrmecochorous, with ants as agents of seed dispersal. Ants are attracted to the elaiosomes on the seeds and collect them and transport them away from the parent plant. The seeds of Trillium camschatcense and T. tschonoskii, for example, are collected by the ants Aphaenogaster smythiesi and Myrmica ruginodis. Sometimes beetles interfere with the dispersal process by eating the elaiosomes off the seeds, making them less attractive to ants.

Conservation
Picking parts off a trillium plant can kill it even if the rhizome is left undisturbed.Some species of trillium are listed as threatened or endangered and collecting these species may be illegal. Laws in some jurisdictions may restrict the commercial exploitation of trilliums and prohibit collection without the landowner's permission. In the US states of Michigan and Minnesota it is illegal to pick trilliums. In New York it is illegal to pick the red trillium.

In 2009, a Private Members Bill was proposed in the Ontario legislature that would have made it illegal to in any way injure the common Trillium grandiflorum (white trillium) in the province (with some exceptions), however the bill was never passed.The rare Trillium flexipes(drooping trillium) is also protected by law in Ontario, because of its decreasing Canadian population.

High white-tailed deer population density has been shown to decrease or eliminate trillium in an area, particularly white trillium.

Medicinal uses
Several species contain sapogenins. They have been used traditionally as uterine stimulants, the inspiration for the common name birthwort. In a 1918 publication, Joseph E. Meyercalled it "beth root", probably a corruption of "birthroot". He claimed that an astringent tonic derived from the root was useful in controlling bleeding and diarrhea.

Culture
The white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) serves as the official flower and emblem 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. In light of their shared connection to the flower, the Major League Soccer teams in Toronto and Columbus compete with each other for the Trillium Cup.

Trillium is the literary magazine of Ramapo College of New Jersey, which features poetry, fiction, photography, and other visual arts created by Ramapo students.
en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium