World Plants Logo

search the world

Bulbs, Perennials, Weeds > Trillium > Trillium erectum > Trillium erectum

Trillium erectum


Wake-Robin, Red or Purple Trillium




Origin:  Native to eastern and north-eastern areas of North America. The genus name comes from the Greek word 'tris', meaning thrice, in reference to both leaves and parts of the flower existing in threes.
Family
Melanthiaceae
Genus
Trillium
Species
erectum
Category
Bulbs, Perennials, Weeds
USDA Hardiness Zone
7b - 8a
Canadian Hardiness Zone
7
RHS Hardiness Zone
H5
Temperature (°C)
-15 - (-9)
Temperature (°F)
5 - 15
Height
10 - 50 cm
Spread
10 - 50 cm
Photographs
Description and Growing Information
Flowering Period
May
General Description
Trillium erectum is a rhizomatous perennial wildflower with three smooth, green, broadly ovate leaves and dark garnet to white petals.
Landscape
A natural choice for woodland gardens. Also does well in a peat terrace or pocket planting in rock gardens.
Cultivation
Grow in part shade, in moist, well-drained, slightly alkaline, well-aerated, humusy (leafmould is preferable) soil. Tolerates sun when soil is consistently moist and shaded during the hottest part of the day.
Growth
Fast
Habitat
Moist woodland and scrub, often on limestone formations.
Leaf Description
Green, soft, glabrous, glossy, up to 20 cm long, broadly ovate, apex acute or cuspidate, margins entire, venation reticulate, sessile (immobile), in a group of three arranged in an apical whorl.
Flower Description
Solitary, terminal, upright or oblique on pedicels up to 10 cm long, three lanceolate, sepals up to 5 cm long and light green suffused with red-purple to margins which are the darkest, petals are dark garnet to white, elliptic with apex acute, up to 8 cm long, spreading or incurved, distinctly veined, unpleasant smelling.
Fruit Description
Berries are glabrous, tri-valved.
Propagation
By careful division and replanting when leaves have died down. Can also be propagated by fresh seed, cleaned and sown 15 mm deep in a propagating mix with leafmould and kept in a cool, shady frame. Plants propagated from seed take about 5 years to flower.
goToTop
top