SNOW TRILLIUM (Early Wake Robin) 

 Trillium nivale Riddell 

 Early spring It is tlic first day of spring and it feels like it. 



Hilly woods, cliffs Although in March the Illiuois landscape in gen- 

 eral still has the e:rev look of winter, the silver 

 niajjles are in hloom, hees have found them, willows have a ruddy look, 

 the wind actually has a llavor on the tongue, and the voices of the 

 meadowlarks surely are all nnc needs to acknowledge the reality of spring. 

 They and the small white snow trilliums on a cool limestone cliff ahove 

 the river. 



Snow trilliums arc one of the first llowcrs to hloom. hut they usually 

 grow in such high, wild spots, that ]U)t many folk who follow the 

 ])rogre.><s of s])ring ever see them when they hloom. For snow trillimns 

 must have hilly woods; limestone cliffs are favorite haunts. The little 

 ti-illiums are si-attercd — some on the cliffs ahove the Illinois river; in 

 Ki(ka|i(»(> \'allcy in Peoria county; at Funk's Grove near Bloomington; 

 on a hill near Lake S])ringrield; at Starved Kock; on the hills along the 

 .Mississi]tpi hctwcen Hamilton and Xauvoo, all the way north to Galena — 

 trilliums here and tiiere in isolated connnunities of llowcrs. 



Jiut they are an essential item in the lists of spring. 



Snow trilliums seldom grow more than three to six inches high, on 

 smooth. ])inkish to green st(Mns. There arc three dark green, ohiong leaves 

 spreading in a neat triangle at the top of the stem. Extending from the 

 e.xact center springs a slim llower stalk with one hud. This o))ens pre- 

 ci.><ely to show three white ])etals, three green sepals, and six pale yellow 

 stamens. That is the snow trillium. 



It l)l(X)ms in Mareh and early April, sets .seeds, and disap])ears until 

 the following March. Then again, here and there in Illinois, rare little 

 white trilliums poke up through fallen oak leaves on the north sides of 

 rocky hills and show the ])roper trillium plan-of-three hefore spring is 

 verv far advanced. 



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