Bill Collins, Executive Director, Thumb Land Conservancy
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| Painted Trillium on the Michigan Nature Association (MNA) Jasper Woods Sanctuary in Kimball Township, Saint Clair County. |
More than likely, yes, but we just haven’t found it yet. This has remained an open question since the TLC began stewardship in 2011 on the Saint Clair County Road Commission and Pro-Tel Development preserves, collectively referred to as the “Michigan Road Preserve” along the east side of Michigan
Road, between Dove Road and the Canadian National Railway, in Port Huron
Township, Saint Clair County. Certainly, good habitat for Painted Trillium is
widespread on the preserve, and it is known to occur nearby. If the species is
present, it’s likely in very low numbers somewhere in a hidden spot where it
has evaded grazing deer and other herbivores. It could be that most of the
plants are in single-leaf seedling form, which, at a glance, are difficult to
distinguish from Canada Mayflower – Maianthemum
canadense, a typically associated species.
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| Painted Trillium on the proposed 30-acre Marzolf Preserve along the south side of the 10-acre MNA Sharon Rose Leonatti Memorial Sanctuary in Kimball Township. Note the petioles, or leaf bract stems, on the 3-leaf trillium in the center. These are distinctive of Painted Trillium and aid in identification when not in flower. Note also the 1-leaf trillium seedling to the upper right of the 3-leaf plant. Trillium seedlings remain in 1-leaf form for a few years before maturing to the 3-leaf form. At a quick glance, the 1-leaf seedling appears very similar to Canada Mayflower - Maianthemum canadense to the lower right and also below the 3-leaf plant. |
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| Potential Painted Trillium habitat on the west end of the Michigan Road Preserve. Seasonal surface water lies between tip-up mounds where Painted Trillium are typically found. |
For the past four years, I have casually searched the
preserve for Painted Trillium while doing other stewardship work. Being very
familiar with the species, I can usually identify the plant long after it has
flowered and set seed, well into August, if the deer haven’t eaten it. In 2015,
with the help of our new intern, Alex Roland, we finally made a thorough
inspection of the west end of the preserve during the peak flowering period, on
May 15. Ron Grogan, a professional nature photographer, joined us to help
search. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any Painted Trillium on the Michigan Road
Preserve, but we know it was up and in-flower on the nearby Michigan Nature
Association Jasper Woods Sanctuary, which we visited the same day. Ron and Alex
were thrilled to see Painted Trillium for the first time at Jasper Woods, and I’m
almost equally happy to be able to show it to someone for the first time. A
photograph is one thing, but to see it live in its natural habitat is another.
Most thrilling for me though, is finding a new population, which I haven’t done
for 8 years.
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| Potential Painted Trillium habitat on the west end of the Michigan Road Preserve. Seasonal surface water lies between tip-up mounds where Painted Trillium are typically found. |
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| Potential Painted Trillium habitat on the west end of the Michigan Road Preserve. Seasonal surface water lies between tip-up mounds where Painted Trillium are typically found. |
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| Bunchberry - Cornus canadensis (white flower) and Fringed Polygala - Polygala paucifolia (violet flowers) on the Michigan Road Preserve. These are typical northern associates of Painted Trillium. |
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| Painted Trillium on the MNA Jasper Woods Sanctuary in Kimball Township on 2015 May 16. Photo by TLC Board Member Dr. Scott Ferguson. |
Painted Trillium – Trillium
undulatum, is a Michigan Endangered species. Saint Clair County is the only
county in Michigan where it is now known to occur. There was a population known
from Sanilac County, but that was reportedly destroyed years ago. Could there
be more in other Michigan counties? It’s possible that a population somewhere
beyond Saint Clair County has remained undiscovered or unrecorded, or that
someone has recently planted Painted Trillium somewhere beyond its original
range. Saint Clair County is an isolated outpost for Painted Trillium on the
western edge of its range in North America, reflecting the Blue Water Area’s
unique natural history. Here it occurs in northern forest complexes of southern
swamp wetland and upland sand ridges, such as on the Michigan Road Preserve.
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| Recorded Painted Trillium range in Michigan. The Sanilac County population was destroyed years ago according to Fred Case, a trillium expert. |
Painted Trillium is one of
nearly 40 species of trillium native to North America, about 10 of which are
found in Michigan. About half, or 5 of these trillium species are on the
Michigan protected species list. Painted Trillium is the only State Endangered
trillium. Three others are Threatened, a lesser protection status, and one is
considered extirpated (eliminated) from Michigan. Unlike Saint Clair County,
the primary range of Painted Trillium is the Appalachian Mountains at higher
elevations on organic soils, in rhododendron and mountain laurel thickets or
Red Spruce groves. Painted Trillium also occurs in eastern Canada, but nowhere across
its range is the species considered common.
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| NatureServe.org Explorer distribution and status map for Painted Trillium. Note that the full coloring of the states and provinces does not indicate that Painted Trillium covers the entirety of those areas, but merely that the species occurs somewhere within those political boundaries. For example, all of Michigan is colored, but Painted Trillium is known to occur only in Saint Clair County now. |
Painted Trillium was first
documented in Saint Clair County around 1900 by Charles K. Dodge, a noted
botanist who also served as attorney and controller for the city of Port Huron.
Painted Trillium was likely in the area for many centuries, but before Dodge’s
time, no one either found it or recorded its presence. Dodge was possibly the
earliest known advocate for preserving that portion of the Black River valley
which later became the Port Huron State Game Area.
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| Charles Keene Dodge. A noted botanist from Port Huron, Michigan. He served as an attorney and controller for the city of Port Huron. Dodge may have been the first person to document the occurrence of Painted Trillium in Saint Clair County. He was photographed here in 1917 at the age of 73 in the final year of his life. |
In Saint Clair County, Painted
Trillium grows only in cool northern forests on moist to seasonally dry acidic
sands. Associated plant species include Red Maple, Paper Birch, Eastern White
Pine, Eastern Hemlock, Black Gum, Witch-hazel, Highbush Blueberry, Low Sweet Blueberry,
Ground-pine – Dendrolycopodium obscurum,
Bunchberry, Wintergreen, Fringed Polygala, Swamp Dewberry, Partridge Berry, Bracken
Fern, Wild Sarsaparilla, Indian Cucumber Root, Bluebead-lily, Starflower, Canada
Mayflower, Dwarf Ginseng, and Goldthread. Painted Trillium occurrence strongly
coincides with the interface of Rousseau fine sand or Chelsea-Croswell sand
ridges and the lower and wetter Wainola-Deford fine sands. These sand ridges
formed thousands of years ago as ancient beaches along glacial lake shorelines
and in drainageways under the glacial ice, later shaped by wind as sand dunes.
Painted Trillium is often found along the base of these sand ridges. The plants
also show a strong affinity for distinct and dense tip-up mounds, formed by
large fallen trees which are prone to wind-throw due to shallow root systems in
sands with seasonally high ground water.
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| Young second-growth northern forest in Port Huron Township, Saint Clair County. The predominance of Paper Birch indicates sand soil with a seasonably high water table where the forest canopy was open more recently than mature areas, perhaps within the past 50 years. Small, temporary gaps in the forest can favor Painted Trillium and other woodland species. |
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| Mature second-growth forest near the same areas as the above photograph, showing distinct tip-up mounds with seasonally inundated to saturated soil between. A few Painted Trillium were found in this area. |
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| Typical associates of Painted Trillium in Saint Clair County; Star-flower - Trientalis borealis (white flower) and Goldthread - Coptis trifolia beneath. MNA Jasper Woods Sanctuary, Kimball Township. Photo by TLC Board Member, Dr. Scott Ferguson. |
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| Typical associates of Painted Trillium in Saint Clair County; Indian Cucumber-root - Medeola virginina (taller light green plants), Ground-pine - Dendrolycopodium obscurum (branched evergreen at center), and Canada Mayflower - Maianthemum canadense (wide dark green single leaves). MNA Jasper Woods Sanctuary, Kimball Township. Photo by TLC Board Member, Dr. Scott Ferguson. |
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| Goldthread - Coptis trifolia, showing yellow roots or "gold thread". MNA Jasper Woods Sanctuary, Kimball Township. Photo by TLC Board Member, Dr. Scott Ferguson. |
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| Typical associates of Painted Trillium in Saint Clair County; Fringed Polygala - Polygala paucifolia (violet flowers) and Canada Mayflower - Maianthemum canadense (wide single leaves). |
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| Typical associate of Painted Trillium in Saint Clair County; Ground-pine - Dendrolycopodium obscurum on a tip-up mound in Port Huron Township, Saint Clair County. Painted Trillium was found not far from here. |
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| USDA Soil Conservation Service soil map showing Rousseau fine sand ridges (RuB) and borrow pit (Bp) areas where sand has been mined out in Kimball Township, Saint Clair County. Painted Trillium was found along some of these ridges. |
Kimball Township is the heart of Painted Trillium habitat in Saint Clair County, with over half, or 10, of the 16 extant recorded locations in Michigan. Most of these Kimball Township occurrences are centered in and around an approximately 10-square mile area that was Hemlock - White Pine forest before European settlement. This forest patch is unusual because it is the only area of this type mapped in the entire County. The highly acidic soils associated with the conifer trees would have favored Painted Trillium.
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| Taylor Road and I-69 in Kimball Township. Several colonies of Painted Trillium have been found in this general area where the forest has a distinctive northern appearance. |
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| Pre-European settlement vegetation map of northern Saint Clair County. The green area south of Black River and west of Port Huron is the only Eastern Hemlock - Eastern White Pine forest mapped in Saint Clair County and is where many of the known Painted Trillium colonies have been found. Surrounding this area, the predominant cover was American Beech - Sugar Maple forest shown in pink, with areas of mixed (with conifers) hardwood swamp shown in red. Source: Michigan Natural Features Inventory. |
Because Painted Trillium
requires very acidic and seasonally moist sands, the post-glacial migration of
the species in Michigan appears to have been blocked by alkaline to neutral
clay and loam soils beyond its current range in Saint Clair County. There is
some chance that elk, deer, birds, or other animals which fed on the mature
seed capsules transported viable Painted Trillium seed over these soil barriers
into suitable habitat long ago, but so far, no outlying populations have been recorded.
Painted Trillium is best
recognized while in-flower by a small red to magenta chevron at the base of
each white petal, the points radiating outward from the flower center. The
petal margins tend to be wavy, or undulate, thus the specific epithet
“undulatum”. The plant is usually smaller than other trillium, sometimes less
than 6 inches tall. It may also be identified by what are effectively the
petioles or leaf bract stems, ranging from ¼ to 1 inch long, unlike the
normally sessile, or stemless, leaves of White Trillium and Red Trillium. The
leaves tend to appear slightly whitish at maturity, or with lighter
variegations, and are usually smaller and narrower than other trillium. Newly
emerged leaves and stems appear reddish or somewhat bronze due to anthocyanin,
a natural antifreeze and pigment that protects the chlorophyl by absorbing
excessive ultraviolet light. In Saint Clair County, Painted Trillium usually
emerges from the ground in mid-May, sometimes delayed up to about two weeks by
cold weather. The leaves and flower are almost fully formed upon emergence, so
that plants typically emerge and are in full-bloom within a day or two. Plants
remain in-flower for about one week, again, varying with the weather. In cooler
temperatures, flowers remain in bloom longer. Seed usually begins developing in
last week of May or first week of June as the petals dry-up and soon fall off. The
seeds mature in a berry-like capsule, an ovary, which sheds in mid summer. As
with many of the trillium, ants are one of the primary seed dispersers. They
are attracted by an oily sweet structure on each seed called an elaiosome. Attempting
to carry the seeds to their colonies, the ants spread the seeds to new areas. The
leaves or bract blades remain intact providing nutrition to the rhizome, an
oblong bulb with annual rings indicating the age of the plant. Painted Trillium
can be found above-ground through summer, sometimes into September, but Eastern
White-tailed Deer and other animals often eat the plants by August.
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| Painted Trillium. Photo by TLC friend Laurie Dennis. |
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| Painted Trillium. Photo by TLC friend Laurie Dennis. |
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| The smallest flowering Painted Trillium I have ever seen. Photographed on 2015 May 16 by TLC Board Member Dr. Scott Ferguson on the MNA Jasper Woods Sanctuary in Kimball Township. Note Scott's finger for size comparison. |
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| Painted Trillium at the MNA Jasper Woods Sanctuary in Kimball Township. 2015 May 16. Photo by TLC Board Member Dr. Scott Ferguson. |
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| Open trillium capsule revealing seeds (greenish and round) with elaiosome structures (whitish masses) and ants. Photo by Chris Murrow: http://antsbeesbutterfliesnature.blogspot.com/2011/08/ant-chat-episode-33-myrmecochory.html . |
Back in 1989, while exploring
with Stan Kuchta of the Michigan Nature Association, he pointed out potential Painted
Trillium habitat west of Allen Road, north of Griswold Road, and south of the
railroad tracks in Kimball Township. Stan was right. I returned in May of 1990
and found my first Painted Trillium in full bloom, and later a much larger
colony of several hundred plants. A few years later, almost all of them were
destroyed by the construction of a single residence. I have found and
periodically monitored 10 previously unrecorded populations (13 new colonies)
of Painted Trillium in Saint Clair County. These included 6 new populations (7
new colonies) in Kimball Township, 2 new populations (3 new colonies) in Clyde
Township, 1 new population (2 new colonies) in Port Huron Township, and 1 new
population in Fort Gratiot Township. My wife, Cheryl Collins, found 1 new
population in Kimball Township. The 11 new populations we found more than
tripled the three previously recorded occurrences in Saint Clair County.
However, of these 11 new populations, at least 5 have since been destroyed by
development.
In 2006 and 2008, two new
populations were found in Kimball Township, bringing the total number of
recorded existing populations in Saint Clair County to 16, according to the
Michigan Natural Features Inventory. Of the 16 total populations known in Saint
Clair County, and Michigan, 5 have less than 20 plants, 2 less than 100 plants,
and one a very uncertain future on a permitted sand mine site, leaving only 8
populations that appear to be sustainable in the long-term. Of the 8
sustainable populations, 5 are relatively protected in Michigan Nature
Association preserves and the Port Huron State Game Area, and 3 are under
threat of development. All populations are extremely vulnerable to deer grazing
and climate change.
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| Painted Trillium current distribution map for Michigan. Explorer. Michigan Natural Features Inventory. |
