Trillium sulcatum
Trillium persistens
Barksdale trillium, furrowed wakerobin, southern red trillium
persistent wakerobin
horizontal–slightly erect, thick, praemorse.
horizontal to erect, short, praemorse.
1–4+, round in cross section, 3–7 dm, 2–2.5 times as long as bract, stout, glabrous.
1–2, round in cross section, 2–3 dm, slender, glabrous.
subsessile;
blade obovate to broadly elliptic, 13–20 × 8–22 cm, not glossy, 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.
facing outward at right angle to pedicel, above bracts, odor faintly musty, like fresh fungus;
perianth gaping, strongly 3-dimensional;
sepals spreading, usually streaked or entirely purplish maroon, occasionally entirely green except on margins, elliptic, 15–38 × 9–15 mm, margins entire, apex strongly sulcate-acuminate;
petals carried somewhat forward to recurved-spreading in distal 1/2, usually dark reddish maroon to purplish, rarely cream to soft yellow, pink, white, or 2-colored, heavy-veined, ovate to broadly ovate-overlapping, 1.8–5 × 1–3 cm, heavy-textured, apex acuminate, rarely somewhat sulcate;
stamens erect, ± equaling or slightly longer than ovary, 15–18 mm;
filaments purple to white, 3–5 mm, slender;
anthers straight, purplish to yellow, 5–12 mm, thick, dehiscence introrse;
connectives equaling or ± shorter than anther sacs;
ovary usually dark purple, globose to flask-shaped, 6-angled, 14–18 mm, broadly attached basally;
stigmas prominent, recurved, distinct, purple, not lobed adaxially, basally thickened, gradually tapered, 2–5 mm, fleshy;
pedicel usually stiffly erect (rarely almost horizontal above bracts), straight, reflexed ± 90° at tip, 6–11 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.
red, fragrance of fresh mushrooms, ± globose to pyramidal, 1.5–3 × 1.2–2.8 cm, juicy to pulpy.
baccate, greenish white, 6-angled, pulpy, not juicy.
= 10.
Trillium sulcatum
Trillium persistens
Trillium sulcatum is present mainly on the Cumberland Plateau and is absent from the Great Smoky Mountains and the southern Blue Ridge Mountains.
T. S. Patrick (1984) described Trillium sulcatum flowers as “relatively small and turned downward.” This is true of plants from the type locality; however, in most plants of the Cumberland Plateau, the flowers are quite large and flattened, and the petals are recurved distally and face outward.
(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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USDA Plants Database
