Euphorbiaceae
The Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In common English, they are sometimes called euphorbias, the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges such as Euphorbia paralias are herbs, but some in the tropics, are shrubs or trees, such as Hevea brasiliensis. Some, such as Euphorbia canariensis, are succulent and resemble cacti because of convergent evolution; this family occurs in the tropics, with the majority of the species in the Indo-Malayan region and tropical America a strong second. A large variety occurs in tropical Africa, but they are not as abundant or varied as in the two other tropical regions. However, Euphorbiaceae has many species in nontropical areas such as the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East, South Africa, the southern United States; the leaves are alternate opposite, with stipules. They are simple, but where compound, are always palmate, never pinnate. Stipules may be reduced to hairs, glands, or spines; the plants can be dioecious. The radially symmetrical flowers are unisexual, with the male and female flowers on the same plant.
As can be expected from such a large family, a wide variety exists in the structure of the flowers. The stamens number from one to 10; the female flowers are hypogynous, with superior ovaries. The genera in tribe Euphorbieae, subtribe Euphorbiinae show a specialized form of pseudanthium called a cyathium; this is a small, cup-like involucre consisting of fused-together bracts and peripheral nectary glands, surrounding a ring of male flowers, each a single stamen. In the middle of the cyathium stands a female flower: a single pistil with branched stigmas; this whole arrangement resembles a single flower. The fruit is a schizocarp, but sometimes a drupe. A typical schizocarp is the regma, a capsular fruit with three or more cells, each of which splits open explosively at maturity, scattering the small seeds; the family contains a large variety of phytotoxins, including diterpene esters and cyanogenic glycosides. The seeds of the castor oil plant Ricinus communis contain the toxic carbohydrate-binding protein ricin.
A milky latex is a characteristic of the subfamilies Euphorbioideae and Crotonoideae, the latex of the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis is the primary source of natural rubber. The latex innocuous in the Crotonoideae. White mangrove known as blind-your-eye mangrove latex, causes blistering on contact and temporary blindness if it contacts the eyes. Other common names are milky mangrove, buta buta, gewa; the latex of spurge was used as a laxative. Recent molecular studies have shown that the enigmatic family Rafflesiaceae, only recognized to belong to order Malpighiales, is derived from within the Euphorbiaceae; the Euphorbiaceae family is the fifth largest flowering plant family and has about 7,500 species organised into 300 genera, 37 tribes, three subfamilies. A number of plants of the spurge family are of considerable economic importance. Prominent plants include cassava, castor oil plant, Barbados nut, the Para rubber tree. Many are grown as ornamental plants, such as poinsettia. Leafy spurge and Chinese tallow are invasive weeds in North America.
In medicine, some species of the Euphorbiaceae proved effective against genital herpes. Some species, despite their medicinal benefits, are facing the risk of becoming extinct; these include the Euphorbia species E. appariciana, E. attastoma, E. crossadenia, E. gymnoclada. Marc Altenloh collection Charles C. Davis, Maribeth Latvis, Daniel L. Nickrent, Kenneth J. Wurdack, David A. Baum. 2007. Floral gigantism in Rafflesiaceae. Science Express, published online January 11, 2007. International Euphorbia Society Cactus and Succulent Society of America Data from GRIN Taxonomy Euphorbiaceae in L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz; the families of flowering plants: descriptions, identification, information retrieval. Https://web.archive.org/web/20070103200438/http://delta-intkey.com/
Bulb
In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases that function as food storage organs during dormancy. A bulb's leaf bases known as scales do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse weather conditions. At the center of the bulb is an unexpanded flowering shoot; the base is formed by a reduced stem, plant growth occurs from this basal plate. Roots emerge from the underside of the base, new stems and leaves from the upper side. Tunicate bulbs have dry, membranous outer scales that protect the continuous lamina of fleshy scales. Species in the genera Allium, Hippeastrum and Tulipa all have tunicate bulbs. Non-tunicate bulbs, such as Lilium and Fritillaria species, lack the protective tunic and have looser scales; the technical term geophyte encompasses plants that form underground storage organs, including bulbs as well as tubers and corms. Some epiphytic orchids form above-ground storage organs called pseudobulbs, that superficially resemble bulbs.
Nearly all plants that form true bulbs are monocotyledons, include: Amaryllis, Hippeastrum and several other members of the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae. This includes onion and other alliums, members of the Amaryllid subfamily Allioideae. Lily and many other members of the lily family Liliaceae. Two groups of Iris species, family Iridaceae: subgenus subgenus Hermodactyloides. Oxalis, in the family Oxalidaceae, is the only dicotyledon genus. Bulbous plant species cycle through vegetative and reproductive growth stages. Certain environmental conditions are needed to trigger the transition from one stage to the next, such as the shift from a cold winter to spring. Once the flowering period is over, the plant enters a foliage period of about six weeks during which time the plant absorbs nutrients from the soil and energy from the sun for setting flowers for the next year. Bulbs dug up before the foliage period is completed will not bloom the following year but should flower in subsequent years.
After the foliage period is completed, bulbs may be dug up for replanting elsewhere. Any surface moisture should be dried the bulbs may be stored up to about 4 months for a fall planting. Storing them much longer than that may cause the bulbs to dry out inside and become nonviable. A bulbil is a small bulb, may be called a bulblet, bulbet, or bulbel. Small bulbs can propagate a large bulb. If one or several moderate-sized bulbs form to replace the original bulb, they are called renewal bulbs. Increase bulbs are small bulbs that develop either on each of the leaves inside a bulb, or else on the end of small underground stems connected to the original bulb; some lilies, such as the tiger lily Lilium lancifolium, form small bulbs, called bulbils, in their leaf axils. Several members of the onion family, including Allium sativum, form bulbils in their flower heads, sometimes as the flowers fade, or instead of the flowers; the so-called tree onion forms small onions. Some ferns, such as the hen-and-chicken fern, produce new plants at the tips of the fronds' pinnae that are sometimes referred to as bulbils.
Coccoris, Patricia The Curious History of the Bulb Vase. Published by Cortex Design. ISBN 978-0956809612
Lilium
Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are native to the temperate northern hemisphere, though their range extends into the northern subtropics. Many other plants are not related to true lilies. Lilies are tall perennials ranging in height from 2–6 ft, they form naked or tunicless scaly underground bulbs which are their organs of perennation. In some North American species the base of the bulb develops into rhizomes, on which numerous small bulbs are found; some species develop stolons. Most bulbs are buried deep in the ground. Many species form stem-roots. With these, the bulb grows at some depth in the soil, each year the new stem puts out adventitious roots above the bulb as it emerges from the soil; these roots are in addition to the basal roots. The flowers are large fragrant, come in a wide range of colors including whites, oranges, pinks and purples.
Markings include spots and brush strokes. The plants are late spring- or summer-flowering. Flowers are borne in racemes or umbels at the tip of the stem, with six tepals spreading or reflexed, to give flowers varying from funnel shape to a "Turk's cap"; the tepals are free from each other, bear a nectary at the base of each flower. The ovary borne above the point of attachment of the anthers; the fruit is a three-celled capsule. Seeds ripen in late summer, they exhibit varying and sometimes complex germination patterns, many adapted to cool temperate climates. Most cool temperate species are deciduous and dormant in winter in their native environment, but a few species which distribute in hot summer and mild winter area lose leaves and remain short dormant in Summer or Autumn, sprout from Autumn to winter, forming dwarf stem bearing a basal rosette of leaves until, after they have received sufficient chilling, the stem begins to elongate in warming weather. The basic chromosome number is twelve.
Taxonomical division in sections follows the classical division of Comber, species acceptance follows the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, the taxonomy of section Pseudolirium is from the Flora of North America, the taxonomy of Section Liriotypus is given in consideration of Resetnik et al. 2007, the taxonomy of Chinese species follows the Flora of China and the taxonomy of Section Sinomartagon follows Nishikawa et al. as does the taxonomy of Section Archelirion. The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, as of January 2014, considers Nomocharis a separate genus in its own right, however some authorities consider Nomocharis to be embedded within Lilium, rather than treat it as a separate genus. There are seven sections: Martagon Pseudolirium Liriotypus Archelirion Sinomartagon Leucolirion DaurolirionFor a full list of accepted species with their native ranges, see List of Lilium species Some species included within this genus have now been placed in other genera; these genera include Cardiocrinum, Notholirion and Fritillaria.
The botanic name Lilium is a Linnaean name. The Latin name is derived from the Greek λείριον, leírion assumed to refer to true, white lilies as exemplified by the Madonna lily; the word was borrowed from Coptic hleri, from standard hreri, from Demotic hrry, from Egyptian hrṛt "flower". Meillet maintains that both the Egyptian and the Greek word are possible loans from an extinct, substratum language of the Eastern Mediterranean; the Greeks used the word κρῖνον, krīnon, albeit for non-white lilies. The term "lily" has in the past been applied to numerous flowering plants with only superficial resemblance to the true lily, including water lily, fire lily, lily of the Nile, calla lily, trout lily, kaffir lily, cobra lily, lily of the valley, ginger lily, Amazon lily, leek lily, Peruvian lily, others. All English translations of the Bible render the Hebrew shūshan, shōshan, shōshannā as "lily", but the "lily among the thorns" of Song of Solomon, for instance, may be the honeysuckle. For a list of other species described as lilies, see Lily.
The range of lilies in the Old World extends across much of Europe, across most of Asia to Japan, south to India, east to Indochina and the Philippines. In the New World they extend from southern Canada through much of the United States, they are adapted to either woodland habitats montane, or sometimes to grassland habitats. A few can survive in marshland and epiphytes are known in tropical southeast Asia. In general they prefer moderately lime-free soils. Lilies are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the Dun-bar. Many species are grown in the garden in temperate and sub-tropical regions, they may be grown as potted plants. Numerous ornamental hybrids have been developed, they can be used in herbaceous borders and shrub plantings, as patio plants. Some lilies Lilium longiflorum, form important cut flower crops; these may be forced for particular markets. Lilies are planted as bulbs in the dormant season, they are best planted in a south-facing sloping aspect, in sun or part shade, at a depth 2½ times the height of the bulb.
Most prefer a porous, loamy soil
Corm
A corm, bulbo-tuber, or bulbotuber is a short, swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ that some plants use to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat. The word cormous means plants that grow from corms, parallel to the terms tuberous and bulbous to describe plants growing from tubers and bulbs. A corm consists of one or more internodes with at least one growing point with protective leaves modified into skins or tunics; the tunic of a corm forms from dead petiole sheaths—remnants of leaves produced in previous years. They act as a covering, protecting the corm from insects, digging animals and water loss; the tunics of some species are thin and papery, at least in young plants, however, in some families, such as Iridaceae, the tunic of a mature corm can be formidable protection. For example, some of the larger species of Watsonia accumulate thick, rot-resistant tunics over a period of years, producing a structure of tough, reticulated fibre.
Other species, such as many in the genus Lapeirousia, have tunics of woody layers. Internally, a typical corm consists of parenchyma cells, rich in starch, above a circular basal node from which roots grow. Long-lived cormous plants vary in their long-term development; some replace their older corms with a stack of younger corms, increased more or less seasonally. By splitting such a stack before the older corm generations wither too badly, the horticulturist can exploit the individual corms for propagation. Other species do anything of that kind, yet others split when multiple buds or stolons on a large corm sprout independently, forming a tussock. Corms can be used to propagate or redistribute the plant. Plants with corms can be propagated by cutting the corms into sections and replanting. Suitably treated, each section with at least one bud can generate a new corm. Corms are sometimes confused with true bulbs. Corms are stems that are internally structured with solid tissues, which distinguishes them from bulbs, which are made up of layered fleshy scales that are modified leaves.
As a result, a corm cut in half appears solid inside, but a true bulb cut in half reveals that it is made up of layers. Corms are structurally plant stems, with nodes and internodes with buds and produce adventitious roots. On the top of the corm, one or a few buds grow into shoots that produce normal flowers. Corms can form many small cormlets called cormels, from the basal areas of the new growing corms when the main growing point is damaged; these propagate corm-forming plants. A number of species replace corms every year by growing a new corm; this process starts after the shoot develops expanded leaves. The new corm forms at the shoot base just above the old corm; as the new corm grows, short stolons appear that end with the newly growing small cormels. As the plants grow and flower, they use up the old corm; the new corm that replaces the old corm grows in size after flowering ends. The old corm produces the greatest number of cormels. Small cormels take one or two more years of growth before they are large enough to flower.
Cormels do have a reproductive function, but in the wild they are important as a survival strategy. In most countries where geophytes are common, so are animals that feed on them, whether from above like pigs, or from below like bulb weevils, mole rats, or pocket gophers; such animals eat through protective tunics, but they miss several cormels that remain in the soil to replace the consumed plant. Plants such as Homeria and Gladiolus, genera that are vulnerable to such animals, are the ones that produce cormels in the greatest numbers and most distributed over the plant. Homeria species produce bunches of cormels on underground stem nodes, Watsonia meriana for example produces cormels profusely from under bracts on the inflorescences. Many corms produce two different types of roots; those growing from the bottom of the corm are normal fibrous roots, they are formed as the shoots grow, are produced from the basal area at the bottom of the corm. The second type of roots are thicker layered roots that form as the new corms are growing, they are called contractile roots and they pull the corm deeper into the soil.
In some species contractile roots are produced in response to fluctuating soil temperatures and light levels. In such species, once the corm is deep enough within the soil where the temperature is more uniform and there is no light, the contractile roots no longer grow and the corm is no longer pulled deeper into the soil. In some other species however, contractile roots seem to be a defence against digging animals and can bury the corm deeply over the years. Wurmbea marginata is one example of a small plant that can be challenging to dig unharmed out of a hard, clayey hillside. Cultivated plants that form corms include: Alismataceae Sagittaria spp. Araceae Alocasia macrorrhizos Amorphophallus paeoniifolius Arisaema Colocasia esculenta Cyrtosperma merkusii Xanthosoma spp. Asparagaceae Bessera Brodiaea Dichelostemma Milla Tecophilaea Asteraceae Liatris Colchicaceae Colchicum Cyperaceae Eleocharis dulcis Iridaceae Crocosmia Crocuses, including the saffron crocus Dierama Freesia Gladiolus Some species of irises Romulea Musaceae Bananas (Musa s
Lithops
Lithops is a genus of succulent plants in the ice plant family, Aizoaceae. Members of the genus are native to southern Africa; the name is derived from the Ancient Greek words λίθος, meaning "stone," and ὄψ, meaning "face," referring to the stone-like appearance of the plants. They avoid being eaten by blending in with surrounding rocks and are known as pebble plants or living stones; the formation of the name from the Greek "-ops" means that a single plant is called a Lithops. Individual Lithops plants consist of one or more pairs of bulbous fused leaves opposite to each other and hardly any stem; the slit between the leaves produces flowers and new leaves. The leaves of Lithops are buried below the surface of the soil, with a or translucent top surface known as a leaf window which allows light to enter the interior of the leaves for photosynthesis. During winter a new leaf pair, or more than one, grows inside the existing fused leaf pair. In spring the old leaf pair parts to reveal the new leaves and the old leaves will dry up.
Lithops leaves may disappear below ground level during drought. Lithops in habitat never have more than one leaf pair per head as an adaptation to the arid environment. Yellow or white flowers emerge from the fissure between the leaves after the new leaf pair has matured, one per leaf pair; this is in autumn, but can be before the summer solstice in L. pseudotruncatella and after the winter solstice in L. optica. The flowers are sweetly scented; the most startling adaptation of Lithops is the colouring of the leaves. The leaves are fenestrated, the epidermal windows are patterned in various shades of cream and brown, with darker windowed areas and red lines, according to species and local conditions; the markings function as remarkable camouflage for the plant in its typical stone-like environment. As is typical of a window plant, the green tissue lines the inside of the leaves and is covered with translucent tissue beneath the epidermal windows. Lithops are obligate require pollination from a separate plant.
Like most mesembs, Lithops fruit is a dry capsule. Capsules may sometimes detach and be distributed intact, or may disintegrate after several years. Lithops occur across wide areas of Namibia and South Africa, as well as small bordering areas in Botswana and Angola, from sea level to high mountains. Nearly a thousand individual populations are documented, each covering just a small area of dry grassland, veld, or bare rocky ground. Different Lithops species are preferentially found in particular environments restricted to a particular type of rock. Lithops have not naturalised outside this region. Rainfall in Lithops habitats ranges from 700 mm/year to near zero. Rainfall patterns range from summer rain to winter rain, with a few species relying entirely on dew formation for moisture. Temperatures are hot in summer and cool to cold in winter, but one species is found right at the coast with moderate temperatures year round. Lithops are popular many specialist succulent growers maintain collections.
Seeds and plants are available in shops and over the Internet. They are easy to grow if given sufficient sun and a suitable well-drained soil. Normal treatment in mild temperate climates is to keep them dry during winter, watering only when the old leaves have dried up and been replaced by a new leaf pair. Watering continues through autumn when the plants flower and stopped for winter; the best results are obtained with additional heat such as a greenhouse. In hotter climates Lithops will have a summer dormancy when they should be kept dry, they may require some water in winter. In tropical climates, Lithops can be grown in winter with a long summer dormancy. In all conditions, Lithops will be most active and need most water during autumn and each species will flower at the same time. Lithops thrive best in a well-drained substrate. Any soil that retains too much water will cause the plants to burst their skins. Plants grown in strong light will develop hard coloured skins which are resistant to damage and rot, although persistent overwatering will still be fatal.
Excessive heat will kill potted plants as they cannot cool themselves by transpiration and rely on staying buried in cool soil below the surface. Commercial growers mix a mild fungicide or weak strength horticultural sulfur into the plants water to prevent rotting. Lithops are sensitive to watering during hot weather. Low light levels will make the plants susceptible to rotting and fungal infection. In the United Kingdom the following species have gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit:- Propagation of Lithops is by seed or cuttings. Cuttings can only be used to produce new plants after a plant has divided to form multiple heads, so most propagation is by seed. Lithops can be pollinated by hand if two separate clones of a species flower at the same time, seed will be ripe about 9 months later. Seed is easy to germinate, but the seedlings are small and vulnerable for the first year or two, will not flower until at least two or three years old; the first scientific description of a Lithops was made by botanist and artist William J
Herbivore
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals have mouthparts adapted to rasping or grinding. Horses and other herbivores have wide flat teeth that are adapted to grinding grass, tree bark, other tough plant material. A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut flora that help them digest plant matter, more difficult to digest than animal prey; this flora is made up of cellulose-digesting bacteria. Herbivore is the anglicized form of a modern Latin coinage, cited in Charles Lyell's 1830 Principles of Geology. Richard Owen employed the anglicized term in an 1854 work on fossil skeletons. Herbivora is derived from the Latin herba meaning a small plant or herb, vora, from vorare, to eat or devour. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants and photosynthesizing bacteria.
More organisms that feed on autotrophs in general are known as primary consumers. Herbivory is limited to animals that eat plants. Fungi and protists that feed on living plants are termed plant pathogens, while fungi and microbes that feed on dead plants are described as saprotrophs. Flowering plants that obtain nutrition from other living plants are termed parasitic plants. There is, however, no single exclusive and definitive ecological classification of consumption patterns. In zoology, an herbivore is an animal, adapted to eat plant matter. Our understanding of herbivory in geological time comes from three sources: fossilized plants, which may preserve evidence of defence, or herbivory-related damage. Although herbivory was long thought to be a Mesozoic phenomenon, fossils have shown that within less than 20 million years after the first land plants evolved, plants were being consumed by arthropods. Insects fed on the spores of early Devonian plants, the Rhynie chert provides evidence that organisms fed on plants using a "pierce and suck" technique.
During the next 75 million years, plants evolved a range of more complex organs, such as roots and seeds. There is no evidence of any organism being fed upon until the middle-late Mississippian, 330.9 million years ago. There was a gap of 50 to 100 million years between the time each organ evolved and the time organisms evolved to feed upon them. Further than their arthropod status, the identity of these early herbivores is uncertain. Hole feeding and skeletonisation are recorded in the early Permian, with surface fluid feeding evolving by the end of that period. Herbivory among four-limbed terrestrial vertebrates, the tetrapods developed in the Late Carboniferous. Early tetrapods were large amphibious piscivores. While amphibians continued to feed on fish and insects, some reptiles began exploring two new food types and plants; the entire dinosaur order ornithischia was composed with herbivores dinosaurs. Carnivory was a natural transition from insectivory for medium and large tetrapods, requiring minimal adaptation.
In contrast, a complex set of adaptations was necessary for feeding on fibrous plant materials. Arthropods evolved herbivory in four phases, changing their approach to it in response to changing plant communities. Tetrapod herbivores made their first appearance in the fossil record of their jaws near the Permio-Carboniferous boundary 300 million years ago; the earliest evidence of their herbivory has been attributed to dental occlusion, the process in which teeth from the upper jaw come in contact with teeth in the lower jaw is present. The evolution of dental occlusion led to a drastic increase in plant food processing and provides evidence about feeding strategies based on tooth wear patterns. Examination of phylogenetic frameworks of tooth and jaw morphologes has revealed that dental occlusion developed independently in several lineages tetrapod herbivores; this suggests that evolution and spread occurred within various lineages. Herbivores form an important link in the food chain because they consume plants in order to digest the carbohydrates photosynthetically produced by a plant.
Carnivores in turn consume herbivores for the same reason, while omnivores can obtain their nutrients from either plants or animals. Due to a herbivore's ability to survive on tough and fibrous plant matter, they are termed the primary consumers in the food cycle. Herbivory and omnivory can be regarded as special cases of Consumer-Resource Systems. Herbivores come in all sizes in the animal kingdom, they include aquatic and non-aquatic vertebrates. They can be large, like an elephant. Many herbivores found living in close proximity to humans, such as rodents, cows and camels. Two herbivore feeding strategies are browsing. For a terrestrial mammal to be called a grazer, at least 90% of the forage has to be grass, for a browser at least 90% tree leaves and/or twigs. An intermediate feeding strategy is called "mixed-feeding". In their daily need to take up energy from forage, herbivores of different body mass may be selective in choosing their food. "Selective" means that herbivores may choose their forage source depending on, e.g. season or food avail
Trillium
Trillium is a genus of perennial flowering plants native to temperate regions of North America and Asia. It was treated in the family Trilliaceae or trillium family, a part of the Liliales or lily order; the APG III system includes Trilliaceae in the family Melanthiaceae, where can be treated as the tribe Parideae. Plants of this genus are perennial herbs growing from rhizomes, they produce scapes which are straight in most species. There are three large bracts arranged in a whorl about the scape. There are no true aboveground leaves. There are sometimes scalelike leaves on the underground rhizome; the leaflike bracts are sometimes called leaves. The inflorescence is a single flower. There are two subgenera. In T. subg. Trillium the flowers are borne on a short stalk whereas in T. subg. Phyllantherum the flowers are born directly on the bracts; the flower has three green or reddish sepals and three petals in shades of red, pink, yellow, or green. There are six stamens at the center. There are three stigmas that are borne on a short style, if any.
The fruit is capsule-like or berrylike. The seeds have oily elaiosomes. Individuals have four-fold symmetry, with four bracts and four petals in the blossom. Trillium rivale has been segregated to a separate genus as Pseudotrillium rivale. Accepted species Trilliums are myrmecochorous, with ants as agents of seed dispersal. Ants are attracted to the elaiosomes on the seeds and collect them and transport them away from the parent plant; the seeds of Trillium camschatcense and T. tschonoskii, for example, are collected by the ants Aphaenogaster smythiesi and Myrmica ruginodis. Sometimes beetles interfere with the dispersal process by eating the elaiosomes off the seeds, making them less attractive to ants. Picking parts off a trillium plant can kill it if the rhizome is left undisturbed; some species of trillium are listed as threatened or endangered and collecting these species may be illegal. Laws in some jurisdictions may restrict the commercial exploitation of trilliums and prohibit collection without the landowner's permission.
In the US states of Michigan and Minnesota it is illegal to pick trilliums. In New York it is illegal to pick the red trillium. In 2009, a Private Members Bill was proposed in the Ontario legislature that would have made it illegal to in any way injure the common Trillium grandiflorum in the province, however the bill was never passed; the rare Trillium flexipes is protected by law in Ontario, because of its decreasing Canadian population. High white-tailed deer population density has been shown to decrease or eliminate trillium in an area white trillium. Several species contain sapogenins, they have been used traditionally as uterine stimulants, the inspiration for the common name birthwort. In a 1918 publication, Joseph E. Meyer called it "beth root" a corruption of "birthroot", he claimed that an astringent tonic derived from the root was useful in controlling bleeding and diarrhea. The white trillium serves as the official emblem of the Canadian province of Ontario, it is an official symbol of the Government of Ontario.
The large white trillium is the official wildflower of Ohio.. Trillium is the literary magazine of Ramapo College of New Jersey, which features poetry, fiction and other visual arts created by Ramapo students. Interactive Identification Key Utah Agricultural Experiment Station — Fact Sheets McKelvie, D. Woodland Plants: The Trillium. Ontario Woodlot Association. Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation occurrence data and maps for Trillium
