Nodding Wakerobin

Nodding Wakerobin
Trillium flexipes

This is also known as Nodding Trillium.

The trilliums are a good example of the difficulty of trying to organize species. They were originally put into the Liliaceae family; then some taxonomists put them into their own family; Trilliaceae, then back to the Liliaceae family, on to the Melanthiaceae family, and now some are putting it back into the Trilliaceae family.

There were disagreements all around; probably arguments, bickering, brawls, and perhaps a feud or two.  The difficulty is that evolution is a continuum rather than a set of discrete steps, and it's hard to decide where the cutoff points are.  Discrete steps do happen, but not always.  Also, it's not always simple to trace the continuum of evolution and taxonomists don't always agree on how it went.  All in all, this makes taxonomy, and taxonomists, a very interesting study.

The flowers are generally white, but sometimes there are maroon ones.

Typical Trillium leaf