ILL-SCENTED TRILLIUM 



ILL-SCENTED TRILLIUM. WAKE-ROBIN 



Trillium eredum 



Perennial. Moist open woods. Nova Scotia to Min- 

 nesota and Manitoba, southward to North Carolina and 

 Tennessee. Common in northern Ohio. April, May. 



Roolstock. — Thick, fleshy, bearing coarse rootlets. 



Ste7fi. — Stout, twelve to eighteen inches high, green, 

 often stained with reddish brown. 



Leaves. — Broadly rhombic, three to six inches long and 

 often quite as broad, acuminate at apex and narrowed at 

 the base, ribbed and netted-veined, sessile. 



Flowers. — Dull madder-red, rarely whitish or pinkish; 

 on a pedicel one to three inches long, more or less declined; 

 ill-scented. 



Calyx. — Sepals three, lanceolate, acuminate, spreading, 

 persistent. 



Corolla. — Petals ovate to lanceolate, three-fourths to 

 an inch and a half long, rich madder-red. 



Stamens. — Six; borne around the pistil, with short 

 filaments and long brownish red anthers, which open 

 down the margins. 



Pistil. — One, brownish red; ovary six-angled; stigmas 

 three, sessile, recurved, stigmatic down the inner side. 



Fruit. — Ovate berry, one-half to an inch long. 

 Pollinated by flies and beetles. 



The Ill-Scented Trillium evidently relies upon odor 

 to attract its insect friends. Like all the Trilliums, it 

 offers pollen in abundance but no nectar. The blos- 

 som has the distinction of being one of the few early 

 woodland flowers of deep, rich color, its dark red be- 

 coming even darker by comparison with the paler 



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