Summer 2004 Kelseya
Summer 2004 Kelseya Volume 17 No. 4 e i n Kelseya n o B : n Newsletter of the Montana Native Plant Society o i t a r t s www.umt.edu/mnps/ u l l I Montana Native Plant Society 2002 and 2003 Small Grants Program Trillium ovatum in western Montana—implications for conservation by Tarn Ream sects, such as beetles and bees, for- jackets. The insects transport seeds ose of you who walk age for their pollen. Seed dispersal to their nests where they eat the oily along the forested is also dependent on insects—each food-body and discard the seeds. streamsTh and seeps of western Mon- seed bears a conspicuous, yellow Western Trillium is sensitive to dis- tana in the spring are likely to en- food-body, called an elaiosome, turbance, particularly in the harsh, counter the white-flowering herba- which is attractive to ants and yellow dry conditions of Montana, where it ceous perennial Trillium ovatum. grows at the eastern edge of its Trillium, a name that refers to three range. Removal of rhizomes, the leaves and three petals, has many medicinal portion of the plant, for common names including Wake- commercial use is often skewed to- robin, because it blooms early in the ward the less common large, repro- spring, and Bethroot (Birthroot), in ductive-age plants. There is concern reference to traditional medicinal that market-driven, unsustainable use of the rhizome by Native Ameri- harvest of native medicinal plant cans for childbirth. There are many species, such as Trillium ovatum, species of Trillium in North America, could decimate populations in a very but only Western Trillium, Trillium short time.
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