Trillium chloropetalum
Trillium persistens
giant purple wakerobin, giant trillium, giant wakerobin, sessile trillium, small-flower trillium
persistent wakerobin
± erect, brownish, somewhat compressed-thickened, superficially bulblike, praemorse, not brittle.
horizontal to erect, short, praemorse.
1–3, green, round in cross section, 2–6.5 dm, robust.
1–2, round in cross section, 2–3 dm, slender, glabrous.
held well above ground, sessile (narrowing of bract blade may give bract subsessile appearance);
blade densely to weakly mottled in dark brownish green, mottling becoming more obscure to absent as bract matures, broadly ovate, 7–17.6 × 7.4–17.7 cm, not glossy, apex obtuse-rounded.
horizontal to drooping distally, sessile;
blade 3–5-veined, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 3–8.5+ × 1.5–3.5 cm, adaxial surface faintly glossy, rarely with ± 2 mm, winged, petiolelike base, apex acuminate.
erect, odor roselike, spicy;
sepals spreading-ascending above bracts, green, lanceolate, 35–65 × 7–12 mm, margins entire, flat, apex obtusely rounded;
petals long-lasting, erect, connivent, ± concealing stamens and ovary, yellow, bronze, maroon, brown, deep purple, reddish brown, pink, dark purplish red, purplish bronze, rarely greenish white, not spirally twisted, veins not engraved, oblanceolate to obovate, 6.5–10 × 1.5–2.5 cm, thick-textured, base cuneate, margins entire, apex variably acute to almost truncate, erose;
stamens erect, purplish, 17–26 mm;
filaments purple, ca. 4 mm, widest at base, much shorter than anther sacs;
anthers erect, straight, ± purple-brown, 13–22 mm, dehiscence introrse;
connectives purple, straight, extended ca. 1–1.5 mm beyond anther sacs;
ovary purple, ovoid, 6-angled, 6–12 mm;
stigmas small, divergent or erect, distinct, purple, subulate, 4–8 mm, not fleshy.
opening above bracts;
sepals spreading, green, elliptic to narrowly ovate, 11–22 × 5–6 mm, thin-textured, margins entire, apex acute;
petals erect proximally, spreading distally, white, fading to deep pink with inverted V-shaped basal portion remaining white, veins not engraved, linear-elliptic to occasionally linear, 2–3.5 × 0.5–1 cm, thin-textured, margins undulate at least in distal portion, apex acute;
stamens prominent, erect to divergent, straight, 9–14 mm;
filaments ± equaling anthers;
anthers straight, yellow or white, dehiscence introrse;
connective barely longer than anther sacs;
ovary white or greenish white, obovate, very sharply 6-angled, 2.5–6 mm;
style 2–6 mm;
stigmas erect, slightly divergent at tip, delicate, not lobed, shortly connate basally, uniformly thin;
pedicel erect or slightly leaning, 1–3 cm, 1/4–1/2 bract length at anthesis.
red-purple, fragrance not reported, ovoid, obscurely 6-angled, 2.5–3 cm, pulpy, juicy.
baccate, greenish white, 6-angled, pulpy, not juicy.
= 10.
Trillium chloropetalum
Trillium persistens
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
J. D. Freeman (1975) considered that Trillium chloropetalum differs from T. albidum in having introrse (not latrorse) anther sacs, and that the purple pigments present on anther and ovary tissue here are absent in T. albidum. In some places, hybridization between the two certainly has occurred, and a complete range of intergrades exists.
This species merits further study. The following varieties are only weakly differentiated and perhaps ought to be dropped.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Listed as a U.S. endangered species, Trillium persistens has appeared as such on a postage stamp. The species is very rare and known only from an approximately four-square-mile area at the head of Tallulah Gorge in Georgia and South Carolina.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Petal tissue always with yellow pigments, often present with other pigments; petals yellow, greenish yellow, greenish purple, or bronze-green or brown. | var. chloropetalum |
1. Petal tissue lacking yellow pigments; petals purple, reddish purple, garnet red, pink, or greenish white. | var. giganteum |
CA
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
