Planting the Future

TRILLIUM

Trillium spp.

PAMELA HIRSCH

My first encounter with trillium was many years ago on an herb walk at Sage Mountain, Rosemary Gladstar’s education and retreat center in East Barre, Vermont. It was at the end of a hot, muggy July day and I was suffering from a heady mixture of jet lag, fatigue, and nervous excitement at meeting Rosemary. It was the first evening of our apprenticeship and I wanted dinner, not an herb walk. However, wanting to appear an avid gardener (not) and an enthusiastic herbalist, I trekked gamely around the property. I blithely tasted lobelia, violets, comfrey, and mullein—all the while wondering if Rosemary was really someone I could trust. Toward the end of the walk, we were shown trillium. What a plant! A perfect set of three threes. That is, the plant was made up of three leaves, three sepals, and three petals. The symmetry was clean and beautiful. I couldn’t help but notice trillium’s similarity to the threefold schematic called triskelion, often encountered in Celtic knot designs. I was also struck by the plant’s apparent fragility, having only the one stem.

Years later, back on the West Coast, I met trillium again. This occasion was more surreal than the first; I was deep into a vision journey led by Rick de la Tour, wilderness expert and coowner of the Dry Creek Herb Farm in Auburn, California. Our task was to find our plant ally or, rather, allow it to find us. I returned without much medicinal information but had loads of more esoteric content, the foremost being that trillium was a forest mandala as well as “the phoenix rising.” This made me wonder if trillium grew well in areas that had been burned at one time, though I have not found any science-based information that would lead me this conclusion. I have been filled, ever since, with a deep connection to the plant.

There are many species of trillium, hence there are quite a few common names, the most often used being bethroot and birthroot. It is also called American ground ivy, Indian balm, squaw root, and wake robin, the latter attributed to the plant’s ability to “wake the robins into song” as the leaves and stem emerge in early spring. A member of the Liliaceae family, trillium is a perennial that grows worldwide, primarily in North America and eastern Asia. On the East Coast of North America, it grows from as far north as Québec south to North Carolina. On the West Coast, Trillium ovatum can be found as far south as the Monterey coast in California and north into British Columbia. Sources disagree on the number of species. The highest number is forty-eight, while most agree that there are approximately twenty to thirty species within the genus. Within California and Oregon alone five to six species are available.

Trillium likes a moist, rich soil such as the kind provided in shaded woodlands. The tuberlike rhizome is barrel shaped, elongates with age, and emits a light turpentine fragrance. While the rhizome has at first a sweet, aromatic flavor, this soon turns to an astringent, bitter taste, causing salivation. The trillium plant has three net-veined, mottled leaves that range in size from 2 to 15 inches and sit on top of a stem 3 to 30 inches high that grows directly out of the rhizome. Erik Jules, an assistant professor of biology at Humboldt State University, has studied trillium in depth and reports having seen individuals with more than one flower. However, most plants bear a single, terminal flower with three sepals and three petals that bloom in May or June in a wide variety of colors—white, pink, maroon, red-brown, green, yellow-green, and bright yellow—depending on the specific species. Jules also notes that Trillium ovatum individuals rarely flower prior to their fifteenth year, and then flowering often occurs sporadically, sometimes on alternate years and sometimes consecutively.

The Native American Indians, especially those living in Appalachia, made use of trillium to treat female disorders. Likewise, it was employed by the early settlers and Eclectic physicians to allay uterine hemorrhage and lessen the pain of childbirth. The early names squaw root and birth root reflect those usages. In addition, the plant was traditionally used as an aphrodisiac. Rafinesque and his contemporaries (1830) felt the different trillium species could be used interchangeably, although Native Americans generally considered the white-flowering species to be the most potent. In 1892 Charles Millspaugh indicated that only Trillium erectum was an effective medicinal. This was met with some disagreement, but most current herbals do list T. erectum as the species of use.

Trillium contains the active constituent trillene and is an astringent, antispasmodic, expectorant, emmenagogue, antiseptic, and uterine tonic. Due to its astringent action, it was often employed in cases of hemorrhage and excessive bleeding, especially in excess menstrual blood loss (menorrhagia). David Hoffmann in The New Holistic Herbal notes that trillium “is considered to be a specific for excessive blood loss associated with menopausal changes.” Trillium’s drying and antiseptic properties caused it to work effectively as a douche for treatment of leukorrhea, a whitish vaginal discharge, and other vaginal infections such as trichomonas or thrush.

Trillium contains diosgenin, which the body seems able to use or disregard depending upon individual need, making trillium a natural uterine tonic. While it is excellent for stimulation of contractions in childbirth, it would be contraindicated in pregnancy for the same reasons.

Trillium was also used as a remedy for dysentery or diarrhea. Made into a poultice or salve, trillium was useful for external ulcers, sores, and chronic skin problems.

Old herbals indicate that for diarrhea or dysentery, 1 teaspoon of powdered root may be boiled in 2 cups of milk. This was drunk throughout the day. Trillium was commonly prepared as a decoction by simmering 1 to 2 teaspoons of the dried rhizome or root in 1 cup of water for ten minutes. Several cups would then be drunk throughout the day.

Trillium may be prepared as an extract, 1:5 in 40 percent alcohol. An easy way to do this is to pour 5 fluid ounces of eighty-proof vodka, rum, or brandy over 1 ounce of powdered, dried herb placed in a jar. Place a tight-fitting lid on the jar (it helps to put waxed paper over the jar first, so that the lid does not rust and stick). Store in a cool, dark place, remembering to shake the jar and its contents once or twice a day. After two to six weeks strain the resulting extract by pouring the contents of the jar into a sieve lined with a clean, thin cotton cloth, placed over a bowl. Squeeze additional fluid from the cloth containing the herbal material. The extract may be stored in a dark bottle indefinitely A general dosage is 1 dropperful three times a day.

In nature, trillium seeds are dispersed by ants. Each seed has a number of fat bodies, little chunks of fat, which lie on the outside of the seed. Ants are attracted to the fat bodies and they carry them back to their nests. After eating the fat, the ants place the seeds in their trash heap/compost pile, where they await winter and germination.

Trillium may be propagated from seeds produced at the end of the summer. In the fall, place the seeds ½ to 1 inch deep in a good, organic soil, similar to that found in moist forests. In its first spring trillium will put out its root radical (first root), but there will be no aboveground growth. It then requires another winter or cold period prior to the emergence of its first leaf. In the first five to ten years, only a single leaf may be made, and as I noted earlier, the plant may take as long as fifteen years to flower, depending upon the species.

It is also possible to propagate trillium from rhizomes. If you are using this method, it is important to obtain cuttings with a bit of originating soil. The reason for this is quite interesting. Trillium has small, smooth, hairless roots that grow downward from its rhizome. In many species roots have root hairs, which allow the plant to more easily absorb required nutrients. It has been noted, however, that plants without root hairs, such as trillium, often require the presence of a microscopic fungus called mycorrhizae in the soil. The mycorrhizae have a symbiotic relationship with the plant that facilitates the plant’s process of obtaining nutrients from the soil, just as root hairs do. It appears that trillium requires these mycorrhizae to grow well. Planting a bare section of trillium rhizome in a soil lacking in mycorrhizae may not result in healthy growth. Ask for some of the earth surrounding the rhizome to take home to mix in with existing soil before planting.

Wild trillium is protected in most states, so only cultivated trillium should be harvested. As with most medicinal roots and tubers, the trillium rhizome and roots may be dug in late summer to early autumn, when the plant’s energy turns downward to the underground portions of the plant. The rhizomes are cleaned and cut, then dried on screens in a dry, well-ventilated structure. The dried rhizome should be stored in well-sealed jars in a dark area to prevent loss of medicinal properties.

Having discussed the proper method for harvesting trillium, it should be noted that it takes many years for the plant to create its prized rhizome. Unlike many of our medicinal plants, it is possible to discover the age of a particular trillium plant. Each year, as the stem emerges from the rhizome, one leaf scar is made on the rhizome. By counting the rhizome’s leaf scars, you can determine the number of years the plant has been alive. Erik Jules found one Trillium ovatum plant that was seventy-two years old. This particular plant’s rhizome was approximately 1 inch in diameter and only 2½ or 3 inches long. Not very big for seventy-two years of existence! And certainly not appropriate to harvest such a plant growing in the wild.

Unfortunately, the current harvest method—harvesting only a portion of the rhizome and returning the remainder to its earthy bed—is not particularly successful as a way of preservation in trillium’s case. Jules specifically does not recommend this procedure, because it appears to significantly disturb the plant.

UpS RECOMMENDATIONS

• Use only cultivated resources.

• Good alternatives are raspberry leaf (as an astringent for the female reproductive system) and motherwort. Use shepherd’s purse as antihemorrhagic and astringent.

It has become harder to find trillium in health food and herb stores. In fact, I found only one source (mail order) of dried bethroot and it was, predictably, wildcrafted. In my opinion, this difficulty in sourcing is as it should be for any medicinal that is tricky to cultivate and/or slow growing. At a time in our earth’s history when plant species are becoming extinct daily, I would be hard pressed to harvest a wild plant such as trillium that produces only a 3-inch rhizome after seventy-two years of growth. There are other, more abundant plants that should be used instead—yarrow and shepherd’s purse for excess bleeding; raspberry leaf, burdock, and motherwort as gentle uterine tonics; and lady’s mantle for its astringent and emmenagogue actions.

In addition, there are other means of availing yourself of a plant’s healing properties. Kate Gilday, herbalist and coowner of Woodland Essence in Cold Brook, New York, makes flower essences from at-risk North American plants (see pages 55-59, Flower Essences, and the resources at the end of this book). She uses a special process that allows the flower to remain attached and intact, without destroying the plant. Trillium (Trillium erectum) is part of her flower essence repertoire. The Woodland Essence brochure states that trillium flower essence is useful for “tender but strong support during times of birth, death and re-birth. Helps one develop the courage and flexibility to flow with life’s changes and cycles. Coming home to oneself. Peaceful centeredness, knowing that is enough.” This is a wonderful way for us to continue a healing relationship with trillium without sacrificing the plant.¹

The plants are here willingly to be of service to Earth and all her inhabitants. As with any dear friend, it is our responsibility and right to reciprocate this service. We may do this by admiring and teaching others about these green beings, creating and maintaining a habitable environment—and sometimes by leaving them to stand alone as elegant forest mandalas.

(I am indebted to Erik Jules, who gave me much of his time and information on a plant he knows well, trillium. Much of the information in this chapter comes from years of Erik’s study of the plant. Thank you, Erik.)

Brown, O. Phelps, M.D. The Complete Herbalist. North Hollywood, Calif.: Newcastle Publishing, 1993.

Gilday, Kate, and Don Babineau. Woodland Essence Brochure. Cold Brook, N.Y.: authors, 1998.

Hoffmann, David. The New Holistic Herbal. Rockport, Mass.: Element Books, 1995.

Hutchens, Alma R. Indian Herbalogy of North America. Windsor, Ont.: Merco Publishers, 1973.

Keville, Kathi. Herbs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Fairfax, Va.: Friedman, 1992.

Kloss, Jethro. Back to Eden. Loma Linda, Calif.: Back to Eden Books Publishing, 1994.

Stuart, Malcolm. Encyclopedia of Herbs and Herbalism. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1979.