Stinking Benjamin is one of several colorful names for this native woodland wildflower, all of them pointing to the flower's notorious odor. The scent attracts flies, beetles, and fungus gnats rather than bees, which means Red Trillium has essentially dispensed with nectar production entirely. The three-petaled flower is typically a rich maroon to red, though it also appears in pinkish, greenish, and yellow forms, and the white-flowered variant is recognized as a distinct variety. Large green bracts up to seven inches long frame the bloom, which is held upright on a recurved stem above them, the posture referenced by the species epithet erectum. Plants grow eight to eighteen inches tall and appear in spring across moist to drier acid soils at mid to high elevations, often within laurel and rhododendron thickets.

For the woodland or naturalized garden in zones 4 through 7, Red Trillium asks for moist, acidic, humus-rich soil in part sun to full shade, with early spring sun being beneficial before the canopy closes. It is notably cold hardy but sensitive to prolonged heat, making it better suited to cooler mountain gardens and northern climates than to the lowland Southeast. Larvae of the black-patched clepsis moth and American angle shades moth feed on this species, and the seeds attract ants, which carry them to new locations. Like all trilliums, it resists transplanting and is best established young and left alone.