Coast Trillium vs Mongolian Vole

Trillium ovatum compared with Microtus mongolicus

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Coast Trillium	Mongolian Vole
Kingdom	Plantae (Plants)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class	Liliopsida (Monocots)	Mammalia (Mammals)
Order	Liliales (Liliales)	Rodentia (Rodents)
Family	Melanthiaceae	Cricetidae
Genus	Trillium	Microtus
Species	Trillium ovatum	Microtus mongolicus

Conservation Status

Coast Trillium

LC — Least Concern

Mongolian Vole

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Coast Trillium	Mongolian Vole
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Coast Trillium

Habitat

Typically found in grasslands, wetlands, forests, and cultivated landscapes.

Range

Found in United States.

Mongolian Vole

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Coast Trillium

Coast trillium (Trillium ovatum) is a spring-flowering perennial herb in the family Melanthiaceae, native to moist, shaded forests of western North America from British Columbia and Alberta south through the Pacific states to central California and east to Montana and Idaho. It grows in mixed conifer and deciduous forest understories, redwood forest, riparian woodland, and coastal range foothills, typically in deep, humus-rich, well-drained soils. Like all trilliums, it produces a whorl of three broad leaves, a single three-petalled flower that opens white and turns pink to deep rose with age, and takes many years to reach flowering maturity from seed. Seeds are dispersed by ants (myrmecochory) attracted to the oil-rich elaiosome attached to each seed. Coast trillium is assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN, though it is a legally protected plant in some US states due to its slow reproductive rate making populations sensitive to disturbance. Illegal collection from the wild for horticulture remains a concern. It is one of the most beloved wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest and is widely cultivated in woodland gardens.