Trilllium

Trillium luteum

Trillium cuneatum

Trilliums are exquisite spring wildflowers whose many species vary greatly, but all have the simple habit of a single stem bearing a terminal flower above 3 leaf bracts. The leaf bracts are the plants' only means to produce food stores. Picking the flower can therefore seriously injure the plant. In some states, including New York, it is illegal to pick or transplant Trilliums from public land without a permit. Such a delicate plant was admired by Matthew the Evangelist, whose gospel describes it thus: 

"Consider the Lilies of the field, how they toil not, neither do they spin, 

And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

(Matthew 6:28b-29)