Trillium sessile |
Trillium chloropetalum |
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sessile trillium, sessile-flower wake-robin, toad trillium, toadshade |
giant purple wakerobin, giant trillium, giant wakerobin, sessile trillium, small-flower trillium |
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Rhizomes | horizontal, brownish, thick, praemorse, fleshy. |
± erect, brownish, somewhat compressed-thickened, superficially bulblike, praemorse, not brittle. |
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Scapes | 1–3, round in cross section, 0.8–2.5 dm, slender to stout, glabrous. |
1–3, green, round in cross section, 2–6.5 dm, robust. |
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Bracts | held well above ground, sessile; blade green to bluish green, strongly to sparsely mottled, mottling becoming obscure with age, oval to suborbicular, 4–10 × 2–8 cm, base broadly attached, apex rounded-acuminate to bluntly parallel sided-acuminate (rounded basally to its broad attachment). |
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. |
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Flower | erect, odor pungent, spicy; sepals displayed above bracts, spreading, green, variously streaked with maroon, lanceolate-oblanceolate, 9–35 × 4–8 mm, margins entire, apex rounded-acuminate; petals long-lasting, erect, ± connivent, ± concealing stamens and ovary, maroon, brownish maroon, green, or yellowish green, not spirally twisted, oblanceolate to elliptic, occasionally almost orbicular, 1.7–3.5 × 0.7–2 cm, thick-textured, narrowed near basal attachment (but not truly clawed), margins entire, apex gradually rounded-tapered to acute; stamens straight, 10–23 mm; filaments red-purple, 2–5 mm, dilated basally; anthers erect, straight, gray-purple, 9–16 mm, thick, dehiscence introrse; connectives purplish brown, straight, projecting 2–5+ mm beyond anther sacs; ovary greenish white basally, purple distally, ovoid to globose, 6-angled, pyramidally narrowed to stigmas, 4–8.5 mm; stigmas erect, divergent-recurved, distinct, purple, subulate, 1–5 mm, ± fleshy. |
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. |
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Fruits | baccate, dark greenish purple, odorless, subglobose, 6-angled, angles somewhat winglike, pulpy, not juicy. |
red-purple, fragrance not reported, ovoid, obscurely 6-angled, 2.5–3 cm, pulpy, juicy. |
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2n | = 10. |
= 10. |
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Trillium sessile |
Trillium chloropetalum |
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Phenology | Flowering spring (Mar–early May). | |||||
Habitat | Rich woodlands, limestone districts, calcareous soils, floodplains, riverbanks, clayey alluvium, less fertile soils, high, dry limestone woods, persists under light pasturing, in fencerows and brushy areas after lumbering | |||||
Elevation | 100–300 m (300–1000 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; IL; IN; KS; KY; MD; MI; MO; NC; NY; OH; OK; PA; TN; VA; WV
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CA
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Discussion | Trillium sessile is rather uniform throughout its range, with few color forms. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 115. | FNA vol. 26. | ||||
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 | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 340. (1753) | (Torrey) Howell: Fl. N.W. Amer., 661. (1902) | ||||
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