Trillium sessile |
Trillium persistens |
|
---|---|---|
sessile trillium, sessile-flower wake-robin, toad trillium, toadshade |
persistent wakerobin |
|
Rhizomes | horizontal, brownish, thick, praemorse, fleshy. |
horizontal to erect, short, praemorse. |
Scapes | 1–3, round in cross section, 0.8–2.5 dm, slender to stout, glabrous. |
1–2, round in cross section, 2–3 dm, slender, glabrous. |
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). |
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. |
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. |
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. |
Fruits | baccate, dark greenish purple, odorless, subglobose, 6-angled, angles somewhat winglike, pulpy, not juicy. |
baccate, greenish white, 6-angled, pulpy, not juicy. |
2n | = 10. |
|
Trillium sessile |
Trillium persistens |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring (Mar–early May). | Flowering spring (early Mar–mid Apr). |
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 | Humus soils in mixed deciduous-pine woodlands, along stream flats and at edges of Rhododendron thickets, occasionally in open Vaccinium-filled clearings |
Elevation | 100–300 m (300–1000 ft) | 50 m (200 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; IL; IN; KS; KY; MD; MI; MO; NC; NY; OH; OK; PA; TN; VA; WV
|
GA; SC |
Discussion | Trillium sessile is rather uniform throughout its range, with few color forms. (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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 115. | FNA vol. 26, p. 101. |
Parent taxa | Liliaceae > Trillium > subg. Phyllantherum | Liliaceae > Trillium > subg. Trillium |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 340. (1753) | W. H. Duncan: Rhodora 73: 244. (1971) |
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