Saturday, September 06, 2008

An Trillium Fruit

During my butternut survey I found a couple of trilliums as pictured here with a red fruit. At first by the leaves one would guess possibly a Jack-in-the-Pulpit but its fruit is a cluster of red berries. After considerable research-- there is lots about the flower but not much about the fruit -- I have determined that it is definitely the fruit of a trillium. According to the internet literature the fruit body actually contains many seeds. In nature the fruit over time would drop to the ground and ants would then excavate into the fruit and take the seeds back to their nests; hence carry out one of the trilliums means of propagation in nature.

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