Common Names
Purple trillium, bath flower, bathwort, bethroot, bettroot, birthroot, birthwort, bumblebee root, daffydown-dilly, dishcloth, ground lily, illscented trillium, illscented wakerobin, Indian balm, Indian shamrock, lamb’s quarters, nosebleed, orange blossum, purple wakerobin, rattlesnake root, red Benjamin, red trillium, red wakerobin, squaw flower, squaw root, stinking Benjamin, three-leaved nightshade, trillium, true love, wakerobin, wood lily.

Description
A perennial that grows to 1 to 2 feet in height. It has a single stout stem with a whorl of 3 broad leaves at the top, and a single brown or greenish purple ill-scented flower growing from the center of the whorl of leaves.

Flowering Period
April to early June.

Habitat
Rich, damp shady woods.

Harvest
Root in late summer or fall.

Uses
The plant has been used as an antispasmodic, emmenagogue, emetic, expectorant, and uterine astringent. The Indians of Appalachia cooked pieces of the root in food as an aphrodisiac.