Date: April 5, 2011. Location: West Branch - Private property
| Classification Hierarchy | |
| Kingdom | Plantae |
| Subkingdom | Tracheophyta |
| Superdivision | Spermatophyta |
| Division | Magnoliophyta |
| Class | Liliopsida |
| Subclass | Liliidae |
| Order | Liliales |
| Family | Liliaceae |
| Genus | Trillium |
| Species | Trillium nivale |
Date: April 5, 2011. Location: West Branch - Private property
Scientific Name: Trillium nivale (tri; flower parts in three. [Lat] niv- snowy)
Common Name: Snow trillium, Dwarf trillium
Origin: Native perennial
Notes: Snow trillium is one of Iowa's earliest blooming spring ephemerals. It's a small plant, rarely taller than 6 inches and usually found in moist calcareous soils on undisturbed wooded slopes.
Additional references:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Flowers: March—April; the rhizome produces a single six-sided scape bearing one flower with three white petals and 3 blue-green sepals; there are six anthers and three styles; styles fused near ovary with each free end becoming a linear stigma; stigmas curled or curved.
Leaves: technically bracts since by definition flower scapes are leafless; blue-green, petioled; 3 in one whorl.
Glossary: Botanical Terms
