Western Trillium

Quileute - kokots’tada´ktcl, “thieves’ leaves” 
Makah - tcatca’olk!us, “sad flower”

Family:  Lily (Liliaceae)   
Genus:  Trillium       
Species:  ovatum

Botanical Description:  Lovely, hairless perennial,  height to 45 cm. Unstalked, triangular-oval leaves in whorls of 3 (up to 5).  White 3-petaled flowers turn to pink-purple with age,  with 3 green sepals (member of the outside ring of modified flower leaves), on single terminal stalk.  Prefers low to medium elevations, moist-wet shaded open areas, forests, and streambanks.

Ethnographic Information: Bulb used in various medicinal preparations. Pounded bulb rubbed on the body as an aphrodisiac by Makah. Quinault women dropped the bulb into the food of a man they desire as a lover. Small oil-rich appendage is attractive to ants, up to 30% of  seed dispersal is done by ants. Ants bring the seed back to their nests where they eat the appendage or feed it to larvae, discarding  the remaining seeds on their rubbish piles, effective mechanism for seed dispersal of  forests floor plants.