Alternate name: Stinking-Benjamin, Wakerobin
Family: Liliaceae, Lily view all from this family
Description The solitary, nodding flower, with an unpleasant odor, rises on a stalk above a whorl of 3 broadly ovate, diamond-shaped leaves.
Flowers: about 2 1/2" (6.3 cm) wide; petals 3, maroon or reddish-brown; sepals 3; green; stamens 6.
Leaves: to 7" (17.5 cm) long; dark green, net-veined not parallel-veined as is typical of most members of this family.
Fruit: oval reddish berry.
Height: 8-16" (20-40 cm).
Flower April-June.
Habitat Rich woods.
Range Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia; south to New England, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and, in the mountains, to Georgia; west to Tennessee; north to Michigan.
Discussion This is one of the most common eastern Trilliums. Its foul smell attracts carrion flies that act as pollinators. Early herbalists used this ill-scented plant to treat gangrene, since, according to the Doctrine of Signatures, plants were used to cure the ailments they resembled. As the genus name suggests, the floral parts and leaves of these perennials are arranged in 3's or multiples of 3, typical of the Lily family. Vasey's Wakerobin (T. vaseyi), of the southern Appalachians, is larger in all respects and has pleasant-smelling flowers.
