Mutant Trillium -- Urgent-ish, maybe - Ask Extension
Hello! On a run in Forest Park I saw that someone had picked a trillium and hung it on a branch (sad). But when I looked I think I see why: it has two...
Knowledgebase
Mutant Trillium -- Urgent-ish, maybe #862508
Asked March 25, 2024, 8:48 PM EDT
Hello! On a run in Forest Park I saw that someone had picked a trillium and hung it on a branch (sad). But when I looked I think I see why: it has two sets of three leaves, and 9 petals!
I took it home, cut off more of the stem at an angle and placed in water, where it currently sits. I couldn't find anything remotely like this online; closest was the rare tetra variant. What do I do with this, should it be studied? Preserved?
Multnomah County Oregon
Expert Response
Dear Robert:
This is a cool flower, but not so notable, no need to preserve it. You can think of it as akin to a four-leaf clover. This isn't super common, but happens with a lot of plants. It looks like your trillium duplicated an extra whorl of three petals, and then wasn't quite sure whether to make sepals (green) or petals (white) with the last whorl.
These are all controlled by the ABC Model of floral genetic development:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_model_of_flower_development
Please help us demonstrate the OSU Herbarium's value to the university administration and our stakeholders by providing feedback on this 1-minute survey, so that we can continue to offer these services.
Herbarium user survey: https://beav.es/T7E
Cheers
- James Mickley
This is a cool flower, but not so notable, no need to preserve it. You can think of it as akin to a four-leaf clover. This isn't super common, but happens with a lot of plants. It looks like your trillium duplicated an extra whorl of three petals, and then wasn't quite sure whether to make sepals (green) or petals (white) with the last whorl.
These are all controlled by the ABC Model of floral genetic development:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_model_of_flower_development
Please help us demonstrate the OSU Herbarium's value to the university administration and our stakeholders by providing feedback on this 1-minute survey, so that we can continue to offer these services.
Herbarium user survey: https://beav.es/T7E
Cheers
- James Mickley
