snow trillium

Native

Uncommon

Moist to moderate moisture. Woods. Filtered sunlight. Limey soils.

Late March to April

White

3″ to 6″

This is a low, erect perennial that rises from a short, stout, up to ⅜″ thick rhizome. It often forms colonies where conditions are favorable. Individual plants may live 8 years or more.

A single leafless stalk (scape) rises from the ground 1⅛″ to 2″. By the time the flower is fully open the scape is 1¼″ to 3⅛″ tall. It is light green or reddish-brown, slender, and hairless.

There are no true leaves. At the top of the scape is a single flower above a whorl of 3 bracts.

The bracts are attached to the scape by short but distinct leaf stalks. They are 1⅛″ to 2″ long, egg-shaped to oval, rounded at the base, and usually rounded, not pointed, at the tip. They are bluish-green or dark green, hairless, and untoothed. They have 3 prominent, parallel veins.

The inflorescence is a single flower on a ½″ to 1⅛″ long, erect or nearly erect, flower stalk at the end of the scape.

The flowers are 1″ to 2″ wide. They consist of 3 white petals and 3 green sepals, and 6 yellow stamens, and a 3-lobed ovary and style. The petals are longer than the sepals. The sepals are ⅜″ to 1¼″ long, narrow, lance-shaped, and bent backward. The petals are ⅝″ to 1⅜″ long, white and oval to egg-shaped, with slightly wavy margins. The ovary is not winged.

The fruit is a ¼″ to ½″, round to egg-shaped, greenish-white, berry.

This plant is the smallest Trillium and the first to bloom.

Large-flowered trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) is a much larger plant, 8″ to 16″ tall at maturity. The leaves are wider and are pointed at the tip.

Nodding trillium (Trillium cernuum var. macranthum) is a much larger plant, 8″ to 16″ tall at maturity. The leaves are wider and are pointed at the tip. The petals are lance-shaped and curve backward at the tip.

Drooping trillium (Trillium flexipes) is a much larger plant, 8″ to 16″ tall at maturity. The leaves are wider and are pointed at the tip. The petals are lance-shaped and curve backward at the tip.

Sources: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 28.

Most sources show this species restricted to the southern third of the state except for the metro area and an isolated occurrence in Douglas County. BONAP² shows this species distributed throughout the state. The map at left does not include the BONAP data.

This is the first wildflower to bloom in the spring in Minnesota forests.

Colony

Plant

Flower

FYI

Today, Sunday April 10, 2011, I saw a thriving and generous population of both the Snow Trillium and Round Lobed Hepatica along the Blue Earth County Red Jacket Bike Trail just north of the Le Sueur River. I noticed the habitat map on your website <http://minnesotaseasons.com/Plants/round-lobed_hepatica.html>  did not show Blue Earth County as a location for the Hepatica.

Ron Geppert