Painted trillium facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Painted trillium
Conservation status
Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Liliales
Family:	Melanthiaceae
Genus:	Trillium
Species:	T. undulatum
Binomial name
Trillium undulatum
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The Painted Trillium (Trillium undulatum) is a beautiful flowering plant found in eastern North America. It's also sometimes called the painted lady or smiling wake robin. This plant is known for its unique white petals with a striking red "V" shape at the center, making it look like it's been painted.

About the Painted Trillium

The Painted Trillium is a perennial plant. This means it lives for more than two years, coming back each spring. It grows from underground stems called rhizomes. These rhizomes help the plant spread and store energy.

What it Looks Like

Each Painted Trillium plant has three large, leaf-like parts called bracts. These bracts are arranged in a circle around a stem that grows straight up from the rhizome. The bracts are oval-shaped and have their own small stalks.

Where it Grows

You can find the Painted Trillium across a wide area. It grows from Ontario in Canada down to northern Georgia in the United States. Its range stretches from Michigan in the west to Nova Scotia in the east.

This plant likes shady spots. It often grows under trees that prefer acidic soil, such as eastern white pine, red maple, red spruce, and balsam fir. It needs soil that is quite acidic and rich in decaying plant matter (humus).

Flowers and Fruit

The Painted Trillium blooms from late April to the end of June. Each plant produces a single flower at the very top of its stem. The flower has three green sepals (leaf-like parts that protect the bud) and three white petals.

The petals have wavy edges and a bright red or reddish-purple mark at their base. This mark looks like a splash of paint, which gives the plant its common name.

After the flower is pollinated, a single fruit grows. This fruit starts green and turns a bright red by mid to late summer. It's a round, berry-like capsule, about 1 to 2 centimeters (0.4 to 0.8 inches) long. No other Trillium plant in North America has a fruit quite like this one.

Images for kids

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  T. undulatum flowering in the Appalachian Mountains in western Virginia USA

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  T. undulatum fruiting along the Lake Mansfield Trail in Vermont USA

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  An unusual individual with four leaves and four sepals

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  Geographical distribution of T. undulatum in the USA