Toad Trillium
Other names
Wood Lily, Sweet Betsy
Growth habit
Herbaceous
Perennation
Perennial
Native distribution
Not Native to the Finger Lakes Region, SE USA
Cultivation
A 10-12" tall plant with mottled foliage and a sessile burgundy flower. Non-native and will spread. the Mundy Wildflower Garden also has bronze-flowering plants that are the result of hybridization between T. cuneatum and T. luteum.
Light: shade to part shade
Moisture and Soil: dry to moist well-drained soil
Propagation
Seed Treatment and Storage: Keep seeds moist. Needs warm+moist/cold+moist stratification. It may be 2-3 years until growth appears above ground (first year post germination is underground development); 5-8 years to flower.
Biocultural value
Although it has been recorded that young, unfolding trillium plants can be eaten, these scarce and precious wildflowers should not be gathered for food purposes except in cases of emergency. Trillium roots are highly emetic.
Wildlife value
Trillium seeds are dispersed by ants, who take the fruit to their underground homes, eat the flesh (elaisome) and discard the seed.
Climate change sensitivity
Over the period from 1986 to 2015, Trillium cuneatum bloomed an average of 8.6 days later.
Location
Source of plant
Unknown
Description
The largest and most vigorous of the sessile trilliums that are native to the eastern U. S. It is typically found in rich woods from Kentucky to North Carolina south to Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.From an underground rhizome, a stout, unbranched, naked stem (technically an extension of the rhizome rather than a true stem) rises in spring to 12-18" tall topped by an apical whorl of three prominently-veined, ovate to egg-shaped leaves (typically to 3-7" long). Each leaf is green, mottled with irregular gray-green blotches. From the center of the leaf whorl emerges a single sessile three-petaled maroon flower during the period of late March-early May. Each flower has three erect, ovate, maroon petals (to 2-3 long) subtended by three smaller green sepals. Flower color is variable, sometimes appearing yellowish bronze or reddish-green. Flowers often have a sweet but faint fragrance (some say reminiscent of bananas), hence the common name of sweet Betsy. Flowers give way to berry-like capsules. Seeds are disbursed by ants. Foliage will usually die to the ground by late summer, particularly if soils are allowed to dry.
USDA Hardiness Zone
5
Special characteristics
This unusal trillium was introduced to the garden from further south. Sweet Betsy is a sessile trillium – the flower comes from the top of the leaves with no stem.