Editing Trillium (section)

==Taxonomy==

In 1753, Swedish botanist [[Carl Linnaeus]] established the genus ''Trillium'' by recognizing three species, ''Trillium cernuum'', ''Trillium erectum'', and ''Trillium sessile''.{{sfnp|Case|Case|1997|p=16}} The [[Type (biology)|type specimen]] ''Trillium cernuum'' described by Linnaeus was actually ''Trillium catesbaei'',{{sfnp|Barksdale|1938|pp=271-273}} an oversight that subsequently led to much confusion regarding the type species of this genus.

Initially the ''Trillium'' genus was placed in the family [[Liliaceae]]. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was sometimes placed in a smaller family, [[Trilliaceae]].{{r|Patrick 2007}} By 1981 [[Liliaceae]] had grown to about 280&nbsp;genera and 4,000&nbsp;species.<ref name="FNA 10507">{{eFloras |1 |10507 |Liliaceae |volume=26 |last=Utech |first=Frederick H.}}</ref> As it became clearer that the very large version of Liliaceae was [[Polyphyly|polyphyletic]], some botanists preferred to place ''Trillium'' and related genera into that separate family. Others defined a larger family, [[Melanthiaceae]], for a similar purpose, but included several other genera not historically recognized as close relatives of ''Trillium''. This latter approach was followed in 1998 by the [[Angiosperm Phylogeny Group]], which assigned the genus ''Trillium'', along with its close relative ''[[Paris (plant)|Paris]]'', to the family Melanthiaceae.<ref name=ZomlWillWhitJudd01>{{cite journal |last1=Zomlefer |first1=Wendy B. |last2=Williams |first2=Norris H. |last3=Whitten |first3=W. Mark |last4=Judd |first4=Walter S. |year=2001 |title=Generic Circumscription and Relationships in the Tribe Melanthieae (Liliales, Melanthiaceae), with Emphasis on Zigadenus: Evidence from ITS and trnL-F Sequence Data |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=88 |issue=9 |pages=1657–1669 |doi=10.2307/3558411 |jstor=3558411 |pmid=21669700}}</ref> 
However, other taxonomists have since preferred to break up the heterogenous Melanthiaceae into several smaller monophyletic families, each with more coherent morphological features, returning ''Trillium'' to a resurrected Trilliaceae.{{sfnp|Weakley|2020|p=201}}

In 1850, German botanist [[Carl Sigismund Kunth]] [[Segregate (taxonomy)|segregated]] ''Trillium govanianum'' {{small|Wall. ex D.Don}} into genus ''Trillidium''.{{r|Kunth 1850}} Some authorities consider ''Trillidium'' {{small|Kunth}} to be a synonym for ''Trillium'' {{small|L.}},{{r|POWO:24856-1}} while others recognize the taxon ''Trillidium govanianum'' {{small|(Wall. ex D.Don) Kunth}} based on morphological differences (with other ''Trillium'' species) and molecular evidence.{{sfnp|Case|Case|1997|p=245}}{{r|Farmer and Schilling 2002}} Still others support the segregation of ''Trillium undulatum'' {{small|Willd.}} into genus ''Trillidium'' alongside ''Trillidium govanianum''.{{sfnp|Weakley|2020|p=201}}{{r|Weakley et al. 2018}}