Undoubtedly the best known, most widely grown, and maybe the most satisfying of all the species to grow, Trillium grandiflorum has a very large natural range over nearly the entire eastern United States and southern Canada down to the mountains of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. If you have ever been in the rich woods and coves of the southern Appalachians in mid-to-late spring or in fertile woodlands of Michigan or Ohio, you have doubtless seen the incredible beauty of these plants growing in great abundance. Flowers are large, up to 6 inches across, and start out white turning pink as they age. Mature plants may have many stems up to 15 inches tall, but it takes some time to make a big clump. A big clump or many small ones is very beautiful. This beauty has also led to the plants near demise as it is probably the wildflower that is dug from the wild in the greatest numbers. Grow them in the shade of deciduous trees where they enjoy sunny days in the spring but then go dormant and rest in the shade for the rest of the year. They want good, humus-rich, limey soil and like to stay evenly moist. (Sunlight Gardens)

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Ohio's state wildflower.

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"Trillium grandiflorum favors well-drained, neutral to slightly acid soils, usually in second- or young-growth forests. In the Northern parts of its range it shows an affinity for maple or beech forests, but has also been known to spread into nearby open areas. Depending on geographical factors, it flowers from late April to early June, just after T. erectum. Like many forest perennials, T. grandiflorum is a slow growing plant. Its seeds require double dormancy, meaning they normally take at least two years to fully germinate. Like most species of Trillium, flowering age is determined largely by the surface of the leaf and volume of the rhizome the plant has reached instead of age alone. Because growth is very slow in nature, T. grandiflorum typically requires seven to ten years in optimal conditions to reach flowering size, which corresponds to a minimum of 36 cm2 (5.6 sq in) of leaf surface area and 2.5 cm3 (0.15 cu in) of rhizome volume. In cultivation, however, wide disparity of flowering ages are observed.

Fruits are released in the summer, containing about 16 seeds on average. These seeds are most typically dispersed by ants, which is called myrmecochory, but yellow jackets (Vespula vulgaris) and harvestmen (order Opiliones) have both been observed dispersing the seeds at lower frequencies. Insect dispersal is aided by the presence of a conspicuous elaiosome, an oil-rich body attached to the seed, which is high in both lipids and oleic acid. The oleic acid induces corpse-carrying behavior in ants, causing them to bring the seeds to their nesting sites as if they were food. As ants visit several colonies of the plant, they bring genetically variable seeds back to a single location, which after germination results in a new population with relatively high genetic diversity.

Trillium grandiflorum as well as other trilliums are a favored food of white-tailed deer."

Taken from wikipedia's page at: Taken from wikipedia's page at:

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