This rare greenish-yellow form of the Wake-Robin grew above the Squaw Run in Fox Chapel, where it was blooming in late April. Wake-Robins are most commonly red, but in Fox Chapel they are almost exclusively white (see pictures here and here). The odor is described in the Flora of North America as “like a wet dog,” which is unmistakable, and accounts for another common name, Stinking Willie. It’s not a flower to sniff with delight.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
TRÍLLIUM L. WAKE ROBIN. BIRTHROOT. Sepals 3, lanceolate, spreading, herbaceous, persistent. Petals 3, larger, withering in age. Stamens б; anthers linear, on short filaments, adnate. Styles awl-shaped or slender, spreading or recurved above, persistent, stigmatic down the inner side. Seeds ovate, horizontal, several in each cell. — Low perennial herbs, with a stout and simple stem rising from a short and praemorse tuber-like rootstock, bearing at the summit a whorl of 3 ample, commonly broadly ovate, more or less ribbed but netted-veined leaves, and a terminal large flower; in spring. (Name from tree, three; all the parts being in threes.) — Monstrosities are not rare with the calyx and sometimes petals changed to leaves, or the parts of the flower increased in number.
Ovary and fruit 6-angled and more or less winged.
Flower pediceled; connective narrow, not produced; leaves subsessile.
Anthers at anthesis exceeding the stigmas.
T. eréctum L. Leaves very broadly rhombic, shortly acuminate ; peduncle (2—8 cm. long) usually more or less inclined or declínate; petals ovate to lanceolate (18-36 mm. long), brown-purple or often white or greenish or pinkish; stamens exceeding the stout distinct spreading or recurved stigmas; ovary purple; fruit ovoid, 2.5 cm. long, reddish. — Rich woods, e. Que. to Ont., southw. to Pa. and in the mts, to N. C. — Flowers ill-scented.
8 responses to “Wake-Robin, Yellow Form (Trillium erectum)”
[…] Unlike the Great White Trillium, this species is a bit bashful. You have to stoop down to appreciate its nodding flowers. The most common color is a deep mahogany red, but in this patch of woods nearly every flower (of countless thousands) was white. This one was blooming at the beginning of May along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel. Another white Trillium erectum is here, and an unusual greenish-yellow form is here. […]
[…] Unlike the Great White Trillium, this species is a bit bashful. You have to stoop down to appreciate its nodding flowers. The most common color is a deep mahogany red, but in this patch of woods nearly every flower (of countless thousands) was white. This one was blooming at the beginning of May along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel. Another white form is here, and an unusual greenish-yellow form is here. […]
I have about 16 species of Trillium. I flowered many Trillium cuneatum, Trillium pusillum variety pusillum, Trillium pusillum variety virgininum, Trillium viridescens, and a solid green Trillium viridescens.
I have the regular Trillium erectum variety erectum.
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I have the white Trillium erectum variety album.
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I have the rose Trillium erectum variety erectum forma roseum. A hybrid of the previous varieties.
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I also have a “yellow” Trillium erectum variety erectum forma aureum.
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[…] the Squaw Run valley are white (see pictures here and here); the same species may also bloom in greenish-yellow. The odor is described in the Flora of North America as “like a wet dog,” which is […]
[…] Two early bloomers among the Trilliums in Bird Park, Mount Lebanon, where they were beginning to bloom in late April. This species is most commonly mahogany red in most of its range, but in our area the white form (more pictures here and here) is most common. There is also a pink form and a greenish-yellow form. […]
[…] but in our area the white form (more pictures here and here) is most common. There is also a greenish-yellow form., and this very rare pink form—which is in fact the only one of this color we have ever seen. (We […]
[…] but in our area the white form (more pictures here and here) is most common. There is also a greenish-yellow form., and this very rare pink form—which is in fact the only one of this color we have ever seen. (We […]
[…] in fact, among countless thousands we found only two clumps of red like this, one of greenish-yellow, and one solitary plant in pink. The odor is described in the Flora of North America as […]