Trillium erectum |
Trillium persistens |
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birthwort, red trillium, red wakerobin, stinking Benjamin, stinking willie, wake-robin |
persistent wakerobin |
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Rhizomes | short, thick, praemorse. |
horizontal to erect, short, praemorse. |
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Scapes | 1–2, often with numerous offsets forming heavy clumps, round in cross section, 1.5–6 dm, ± robust, glabrous. |
1–2, round in cross section, 2–3 dm, slender, glabrous. |
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Bracts | sessile; blade bright green, lacking dark pigmentation, major veins prominent, broadly rhombic to ovate-rhombic, 5–20 × 5–20 cm, about as broad as long, widest near middle, base attenuate, apex acuminate. |
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. |
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Flower | erect, ascending, or proximal to but above bracts, odor fetid, like a wet dog; perianth open, flat; sepals flat to sulcate apically, green, often streaked or overlain with maroon, occasionally entirely dark maroon, lanceolate-acuminate, 10–50 mm, equaling petals, ± 1/2 petal width, texture leafy, margins entire, apex acuminate; petals spreading, carried in same plane as sepals or ascending slightly, dark reddish brown, maroon, purple, or white, sometimes pale yellow, major adaxial veins prominent and appearing somewhat engraved, usually flat, lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, or occasionally ovate, 1.5–5 × 1–3 cm, 2 times sepal width, widest near base, heavy-textured, apex acuminate; stamens erect to slightly recurved, 5–15 mm; filaments white, pinkish, or dark purple, ± equaling anthers, but variable within local populations, thin; anthers erect or weakly recurving, dark maroon, grayish maroon, or yellowish, strongly yellow when pollen exposed, 5–12 mm, dehiscence introrse; ovary dark purple to maroon, even in white-flowered forms, ovoid, elliptic to globose, 6-angled, angles forming very low ridges when fruit is ripe, 5–10 mm, broadly attached at base; stigmas recurved, distinct, dark purple, not lobed adaxially, subulate, short, 3–7 mm, ca. 1/2 or less length of ovary at anthesis, fleshy; pedicel straight, erect, or somewhat declined but not strongly recurved below bracts, 1–10+ cm. |
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. |
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Fruits | dark maroon, weakly fragrant of fruit, ± globose to slightly pyramidal, 1–1.6 × 1–1.5 cm, juicy. |
baccate, greenish white, 6-angled, pulpy, not juicy. |
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2n | = 10. |
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Trillium erectum |
Trillium persistens |
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Phenology | Flowering spring (early Mar–mid Apr). | |||||
Habitat | Humus soils in mixed deciduous-pine woodlands, along stream flats and at edges of Rhododendron thickets, occasionally in open Vaccinium-filled clearings | |||||
Elevation | 50 m (200 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
e North America
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GA; SC |
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 98. | FNA vol. 26, p. 101. | ||||
Parent taxa | Liliaceae > Trillium > subg. Trillium | Liliaceae > Trillium > subg. Trillium | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 340. (1753) | W. H. Duncan: Rhodora 73: 244. (1971) | ||||
Web links |