Trillium chloropetalum |
Trillium reliquum |
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giant purple wakerobin, giant trillium, giant wakerobin, sessile trillium, small-flower trillium |
confederate wakerobin, relict trillium |
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Rhizomes | ± erect, brownish, somewhat compressed-thickened, superficially bulblike, praemorse, not brittle. |
short, stout, praemorse. |
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Scapes | 1–3, green, round in cross section, 2–6.5 dm, robust. |
1–2, semidecumbent, decumbent, or weakly erect (especially in cultivation), S-shaped, round in cross section, 0.6–1.8 dm, glabrous. |
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Bracts | 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. |
resting on or near ground surface, horizontally spreading, sessile; blade strongly mottled on each side of central light green stripe in shades of light green, dark green, bronze green, and dark purple, mottling becoming obscure with age, ovate to elliptic, rounded-tapered ± equally from base to tip from widest point, 5–12 × 6–10 cm, apex rounded or weakly acute. |
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Flower | 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. |
borne directly on bracts, odor of putrid meat; sepals divergent, somewhat recurved, green, maroon streaked, lanceolate, 17–42 × 5–9.5 mm, margins entire, flat, apex rounded-acute; petals long-lasting, erect, ± connivent, ± concealing stamens and ovary, dark brownish maroon, greenish purple, or streaked with yellow, usually not spirally twisted, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate to oblanceolate, 2.5–5.5 × 0.6–1 cm, thick-textured, margins entire, ± flat, apex acute; stamens erect, incurved, 12–20 mm; filaments ± straight, reddish brown, 1–2 mm, slender; anthers ± straight, dark purple, 4–20 mm, ± thick, dehiscence introrse; connectives brown-purple, extending 1–2.5 mm beyond anther sacs, apex acute; ovary green-purple, ovoid, 6-angled, 5–10 mm; stigmas erect, divergent-recurved, distinct, linear, 2–4 mm, uniformly thin. |
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Fruits | red-purple, fragrance not reported, ovoid, obscurely 6-angled, 2.5–3 cm, pulpy, juicy. |
baccate, dark maroon-purple, fragrance unreported, ovoid, 6-winged or -angled apically, 0.7–1 cm, pulpy, moist. |
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2n | = 10. |
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Trillium chloropetalum |
Trillium reliquum |
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Phenology | Flowering late winter–spring (early Mar–Apr). | |||||
Habitat | Rich mixed deciduous forested slopes, bluffs, stream-flats, lower slopes at edge of small stream floodplains | |||||
Elevation | 50–100 m (200–300 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CA
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GA; SC
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Discussion | 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. Trillium reliquum recently has been reported from Alabama; I have not seen specimens from there. Otherwise, the species occurs in Clay, Early, and Richmond counties, Georgia, and in Aiken County, South Carolina. It is currently listed as an endangered species in the United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 26. | FNA vol. 26, p. 115. | ||||
Parent taxa | Liliaceae > Trillium > subg. Phyllantherum | Liliaceae > Trillium > subg. Phyllantherum | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | T. sessile var. chloropetalum, T. giganteum var. chloropetalum | |||||
Name authority | (Torrey) Howell: Fl. N.W. Amer., 661. (1902) | J. D. Freeman: Brittonia 27: 21, fig. 5. (1975) | ||||
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