Trillium

Trillium (trillium, wakerobin, tri flower, birthroot, birthwort) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Melanthiaceae. Trillium species are native to temperate regions of North America and Asia, with the greatest diversity of species found in the southeastern United States, especially in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama. The genus was formerly treated in the family Trilliaceae of the (lily) order Liliales whereas the APG III system includes Trillium in tribe Parideae of the family Melanthiaceae. Plants of this genus are perennial herbs growing from rhizomes. There are three large leaf-like bracts arranged in a whorl about a scape that rises directly from the rhizome. There are no true aboveground leaves but sometimes there are scale-like leaves on the underground rhizome. The bracts are photosynthetic and are sometimes called leaves. The inflorescence is a single flower with three green or reddish sepals and three petals in shades of red, purple, pink, white, yellow, or green. At the center of the flower there are six stamens and three stigmas borne on a very short style, if any. The fruit is fleshy and capsule-like or berrylike. The seeds have large, oily elaiosomes. Occasionally individuals have four-fold symmetry, with four bracts (leaves), four sepals, and four petals in the blossom.