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Trillium erectum
Also called Purple Trillium, Wakerobin, Stinking Benjamin, Birthwort, Ill Scented Trillium, Ill Scented Wakerobin, Beth Root
Red trillium is a spring-blooming woodland perennial that grows from an underground rhizome, with three leaves and a single flower in a whorl. It thrives in cool, moist, shaded forest soil and goes dormant after flowering.
Trillium erectum, the red trillium, also known as wake robin, purple trillium, bethroot, or stinking benjamin, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. The plant takes its common name "wake robin" by analogy with the European robin, which has a red breast heralding spring. Likewise Trillium erectum is a spring ephemeral plant whose life-cycle is synchronized with that of the forests in which it lives. It is native to the eastern United States and eastern Canada from northern Georgia to Quebec and New Brunswick.
Trillium erectum is native to eastern North America. Its range extends from northern Georgia in the southeastern United States to Quebec and New Brunswick in eastern Canada, and as far west as Michigan and southern Ontario. The species is known to occur in the following provinces and states:
The root of the red trillium was used by various indigenous peoples of North America as an aid in childbirth, hence the common name birthwort or birthroot (which is sometimes corrupted to bethroot). Root tea was used for menstrual disorders, to induce childbirth, and to aid in labor. The Cherokee peoples used a poultice of the whole plant to treat tumors, inflammation, and ulcers.
Giant white wakerobin · Giant wakerobin · White trillium · Yellow wakerobin · Snow trillium · Pacific trillium · Sweet wakerobin · Toadshade
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Trillium erectum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
