Giant Wakerobin
Trillium chloropetalum
Giant Wakerobin is a waxy, dark green clumping herb. Each plant has a single whorl of 3 leaves directly attached to the thin, fleshy stem. The large, triangular leaves, which can grow up to 6 inches long, often have brown to purple mottling. On the top of the stem, attached to the center of the leaves, is one large flower with three petals. The petals, ranging from dark purple to red to white in color, are up to 4 inches long. Concealed within the petals are 3 inch long greenish pollen-bearing stamens. The plant’s fruit is a hexagonal, berry-like capsule, which splits open when mature.
Basic Information
Member of the Melanthiaceae family
Perennial herb
Be sure not to confuse the white-petalled form of T. chloropetalum, which occurs in the San Franscisco Bay Area, with T. albidum
T. chloropetalum is distinguished by the purple pigment in its connective tissue in the stamen, which T. albidum doesn’t have
Habitat
Native to the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada foothills from Monterey County up to the northern Lake Country
Endemic to California (ie. found only in California)
Found mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area
Range is contested — some botanists argue that it extends from Siskiyou County to Santa Barbara and Madera Counties
Commonly found around the edges of redwood and chaparral forests on moist slopes and canyons banks
Ecological Role
Seeds provide food to mammals
Fleshy bit of fruit feeds ant larvae
Reproduction
Blooms from February to early April
Spreads by underground rhizomes
Trilliums use a strategy called myrmecochory for seed dispersal
The white, fleshy end of the seed tip is a nutrient-rich food packet called a elaiosome, which attracts ants
Ants carry seeds to their colony up to 1 mile away, feed the packet to their larvae, and discard the seeds, effectively planting them
Mammals, like deer, ingest and defecate the seeds, helping disperse the seeds
Alternative Names
Common trillium, giant trillium, and sessile trillium
Historical Uses
The Ohlone made a heated poultice of the plant for chest pains
The Yurok used a poultice of rhizome (root) scrapings to treat burns
