Lance-leaved Trillium (Trillium lancifolium)
By Larry Stritch
All trillium species belong to the Liliaceae (lily) family and are rhizomatous herbs with unbranched stems. Trillium plants produce no true leaves or stems above ground. The “stem” is actually just an extension of the horizontal rhizome and produces tiny, scale like leaves (cataphylls). The aboveground plant is technically a flowering scape, and the leaf-like structures are actually bracts subtending the flower. Despite their morphological origins, the bracts have external and internal structure similar to that of a leaf, function in photosynthesis, and most authors refer to them as leaves.
Trilliums are divided into two major groups, the pedicellate and sessile trilliums. In the pedicellate trilliums, either the flower sits upon a pedicel that extends from the whorl of bracts, “erect” above the bracts, or “nodding” recurved under the bracts. In the sessile trilliums, there is no pedicel and the flower appears to arise directly from the bracts.
Lance-leaf trillium falls within the sessile trillium group and typically flowers in the southern part of its range February to May. It blooms from mid-April to early May in the northern part of its range. Lance-leaved trillium has an extremely disjunct distribution over its range. It is found growing in alluvial soils and plants reach their greatest size on floodplains. However, it is found in rocky, upland woods, canebrakes, and brushy thickets.
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