Native Ozark Wildflowers - Brown Flowers - Wake Robin

Trillium sessile

Now you may be thinking, "That's purple trillium. What is she talking about?" Purple trillium, Trillium recurvatum, has leaves with stalks. Wake Robin leaves do not have stalks. I looked and looked through my trillium photos and could not find a single photo of T. recurvatum. All my photos are of T. sessile.

Wake Robin and purple trillium have the same bloom season and grow in the same habitat. They bloom from April to May. They are found on rocky, wooded slopes and low, moist bottoms of ravines and valleys. Wake Robin is found throughout the Ozarks while purple trillium is found mostly in the eastern and southern parts.

According to Ozark Wildflowers: A Falcon Guide by Don Kurz:

Several North American tribes used the root as a treatment for open wounds and sores, menstrual disorders, menopause, and internal bleeding, as an inducement to childbirth, and as an aphrodisiac. frontier physicians used the crushed fresh leaves to treat snakebites stings, and skin irritations.

These were all found along the Jacks Fork River.

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