Pretty Garden Tips

Wild Flower Garden Lily: Painted Trilliums

Did you know? Not all flowers smell nice! One advantage of planting flowers that don’t smell great, is so you can have a nice garden without attracting a lot of bees or other insects. Here are several types of lily wild flowers that might look nice, but not smell too great…

The Painted Trillium, T. undulatum or T. erythrocarpum, is quite possibly one of the most striking wild flower lilies. At the summit of the slender stem, rising about only eight inches, this charming flower spreads its long, wavy-edged, waxy-white petals veined and striped with deep pink or wine color. The large ovate leaves, long-tapering to a point, are rounded at the base into short petioles.

It also sports a rounded, three-angled, bright red, shining berry that’s seated in the
persistent calyx. With the same range as the nodding trillium’s, the Painted Wake-Robin comes into bloom nearly a month later–in May and June–when all the birds are not only wide awake, but have finished courting, and are busily engaged in the most serious business of life.

The Purple Trillium is also called Ill-scented Wake-Robin, or Birth-root, and is known by the scientific name of Trillium erectum. This wild flower features dark, dull purple or purplish red flowers. On rare occasions it can also produce greenish, white or pinkish flowers too. It grows just eight to sixteen inches tall and has whorls of three leaves which end in abrupt points, and have netted veins.

This wild flower also produces a reddish berry, and blooms from April to June. It prefers rish, moist woods to grow in. Good growing areas include North Carolina and Missouri.

Note one of the common names of this wild flower: “Ill Scented…”. The flowers have a scent to them that isn’t overly agreeable to most people. In fact, even bees tend to stay away from this one but that’s probably because it doesn’t secrete any nectar.

Another wild flower of the same type is The Sessile-flowered Wake-Robin, T. sessile. This one also has dark purple, purplish-red, or greenish flowers which tend to be more narrow than the Purple Trillium. Its leaves are egg shaped and sometimes look blotchy. The blooms on this wild flower are more pleasant and appealing yet it still doesn’t attract many insects.

The Sessile Trillium blooms in April or May and prefers deep, rich, moist woods and thickets. It does well from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Minnesota southward nearly to the Gulf.

And while we’re talking about wild flowers that might not smell too hot, we should meantion a close cousin of the Trilliums: A wild flower lily known as the Carrion flower (Smilax herbacea). This wild flower has anywhere from fifteen to eighty small yellowish-green flowers whose smell lives up to the name. The leaves of this plant can be egg shaped, heart shaped, or rounded, with pointed tips.

The Carrion flower produces bluish black berries as well, and likes moist soil, thickets, woods and roadside fences. The flowers bloom from April to June and it performs well in the Eastern United States.

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