Toad Trillium or Sessile Trillium, (Trillium sessile)
This photo of a Toad Trillium wildflower (Trillium sessile) was made in Germantown MetroPark in April 2004.
A relatively non-flamboyant early spring woodland wildflower, Toad Trillium exhibits a subdued beauty all its own. Its small maroon petals are erect rather than spreading like the showy white trillium. The alternate common name, Sessile Trillium, refers to the fact that its flower grows right atop the leaves, rather than on a flower stalk.
The leaves of Toad Trillium have a kind of trout lily dark-green-on-light-green splotchiness, somewhat like hunters' camouflage clothes. As with all trilliums, the leaves, the petals, and the sepals are all in whorls of three. Three sets of three.
Photo location: Germantown MetroPark, Montgomery County, Ohio.
