About

Trillium sessile is a species of flowering plant in the bunchflower family Melanthiaceae. The specific epithet sessile means "attached without a distinct stalk", an apparent reference to its stalkless flower. It is commonly known as toadshade (not to be confused with Trillium recurvatum, which is also known by that name), toad trillium or red trillium. It is also called sessile trillium or sessile-flowered wake-robin, however it is not the only member of the genus with a sessile flower.

Trillium sessile is endemic to the eastern half of the United States. It has the widest range of any species of sessile-flowered trillium. There are two subpopulations geographically separated by a large gap in central Illinois where the species is strangely absent.

Where it grows

Trillium sessile is endemic to the eastern half of the United States, ranging from Maryland in the east to the Ozarks in the heart of the Mississippi Basin, and from the southern Great Lakes region to northern Alabama. The species occurs in more U.S. states than any other sessile-flowered trillium:

Uses

Although some accounts indicate that the cooked greens of this plant may be edible as an emergency food, the entire plant, and especially the root, is known to induce vomiting. The fruit is considered a suspected poison.

Other Trillium plants

Giant white wakerobin · Narrowpetal wakerobin · Kamchatka Trillium · Bashful wakerobin · Whip-poor-will flower · Trillium channellii · Giant wakerobin · Wenatchee Mountains Trillium · Little sweet Betsy · Chattahoochee River wakerobin · Trailing wakerobin · Mottled wakerobin