Trillium stamineum |
Trillium persistens |
|
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Blue Ridge wakerobin, twisted trillium |
persistent wakerobin |
|
Rhizomes | horizontal, brownish, short, thick, praemorse, not brittle. |
horizontal to erect, short, praemorse. |
Scapes | 1–3, round in cross section, 1.5–3 dm, slender to stout, pilose-pubescent, rarely glabrous. |
1–2, round in cross section, 2–3 dm, slender, glabrous. |
Bracts | held well above ground, sessile; blade light silvery or bluish green with strong to faint mottling in darker colors, mottling becoming obscure with age, ovate-lanceolate to broadly ovate, 6.3–7.6 × 3.3–5 cm, larger bracts abaxially pilose-pubescent, margins entire, apex acute. |
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 strong, of carrion; sepals displayed above bracts, spreading to ± horizontal position, green, purple markings adaxially, lanceolate-elliptic, 17–40 mm, margins entire, purple, apex acuminate; petals long-lasting, spreading and carried in ± horizontal position unlike any other sessile trillium, very deep maroon to blackish red, rarely yellow, purple-streaked, with 1–2 spiral twists, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate or linear, narrow, 1.5–3.8 × 0.3–0.6 cm, rarely broader, thick-textured, margins entire, apex sharply acute to rounded, tips incurving slightly; stamens fully exposed, somewhat stiffly erect, dark purple, 16–24 mm, thick; filaments dark purple, 2–4 mm, basally dilated; anthers erect, straight, dark purple, 13–18 mm, thick, dehiscence extrorse; connectives dark purple, straight, coarse, flat, ± not extended beyond anther sacs; ovary dark purple, oval, 6-angled, 5–7 mm; stigmas erect, widely spreading, often strongly recurved or recoiled, distinct, purple, linear, 4–10 mm, slightly thickened basally. |
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, purple, odorless, ovoid, strongly 6-angled, sometimes winged, 2 × 1–1.5 cm, pulpy, moist. |
baccate, greenish white, 6-angled, pulpy, not juicy. |
2n | = 10. |
|
Trillium stamineum |
Trillium persistens |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring (late Mar–mid May). | Flowering spring (early Mar–mid Apr). |
Habitat | Dry, upland woods of deciduous trees, deciduous forest mixed with pines, soil on limestone outcroppings, mesic woods, sandy flats along medium streams, steep wooded slopes, banks of rivers | Humus soils in mixed deciduous-pine woodlands, along stream flats and at edges of Rhododendron thickets, occasionally in open Vaccinium-filled clearings |
Elevation | 50–200 m (200–700 ft) | 50 m (200 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; MS; TN
|
GA; SC |
Discussion | 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 | Harbison: Biltmore Bot. Stud. 1: 23. (1901) | W. H. Duncan: Rhodora 73: 244. (1971) |
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