[4][5][6] Trillium nivale is a perennial herbaceous plant that flowers late winter or early spring, occasionally while snow is still on the ground.

[8] Along with the eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), T. nivale is one of the earliest flowering spring ephemerals.

[9] Given its winter hardiness, one would expect the range of T. nivale to extend farther north, but curiously this is not the case.

Unlike most trilliums, it does not grow in leaf mold, preferring limy sandy gravel, crevices in limestone, or calcareous mineral soil.

After twelve or more years of vegetative growth, the plant finally reaches its three-leaf reproductive (flowering) stage.