Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia

Over 40 Years of Growing Gardens and Gardeners

Snow covered branches
Photo © Mary Free

PERENNIAL: Trillium grandiflorum (Large-flowered or Great White Trillium)

Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic

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This showy trillium, with flower diameters up to four inches, is a familiar spring native wildflower in the Mid-Atlantic* woodlands of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachian Plateaus. The Virginia Native Plant Society named Great White Trillium Wildflower of the Year in 1996.

*In the Mid-Atlantic Region, it is native to DC, rare in the DE Piedmont, reported in seven MD counties, and mostly found in the western half of PA. In VA, it is common in the mountains and rare in the inner Piedmont. It is not native to NoVA although it may grow where it has escaped cultivation. You can view the VA counties in which it has been reported here.

Learn more about Trillium grandiflorum.

Native Trillium grandiflorum flower
Whorl of 3 bracts of native Trillium grandiflorum (large-flowered trillium) in April.
Native Trillium grandiflorum en masse
Trillium grandiflorum (Large-flowered or Great White Trillium) in April woods at Longwood Gardens, PA.
Native Trillium grandiflorum flower
Trillium grandiflorum (Large-flowered or Great White Trillium) at the Thompson Wildlife Management Area in May.

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