Trillium underwoodii
Trillium persistens
longbract wakerobin, Underwood's trillium
persistent wakerobin
horizontal, brownish, short, thick, praemorse, not brittle.
horizontal to erect, short, praemorse.
1–2, round in cross section, 0.8-2 dm, slender to stout, glabrous.
1–2, round in cross section, 2–3 dm, slender, glabrous.
usually drooping, often touching ground in early anthesis, sessile;
blade pale silvery green, strongly mottled in 3 or more shades of dark green and bronze, sometimes maroon, mottling becoming obscure with age, ovate-lanceolate to obovate, 6.5–12 × 5–7.8 cm, margins of distal 1/3 straight from rounded base to apex, 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.
erect, odor fetid, especially when first open;
sepals displayed above bracts, spreading, green or purple on adaxial surface, lanceolate, 4.5–5 × 8–12 mm, margins entire, flat, apex rounded-acute;
petals long-lasting, erect-spreading, ± connivent, ± concealing stamens and ovary or at least partially obscuring stamens, tips ± incurved, dark maroon-red, or purplish red, brownish maroon, or yellowish green, not spirally twisted, oblanceolate to elliptic, 3–5.5+ × 1–1.5 cm, usually 3–4 times longer than wide, thick-textured, margins entire, apex acute;
stamens ± erect to weakly incurved, 14–17 mm;
filaments purple, 1–2 mm;
anthers 8–15 mm, thick, dehiscence latrorse;
connectives brown-purple, straight, extended 1–2 mm beyond anther sacs, apex somewhat acute;
ovary purple, ellipsoid, 6-angled, 6.3–11 mm;
stigmas erect, abruptly recurved upon ovary, distinct, purplish, linear, 1.5–5 mm, slightly thickened basally, 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.
baccate, purple-black to dull greenish maroon, odorless, ovoid to obovoid, 6-angled (-ridged), 0.7–1 cm diam., pulpy, not juicy.
baccate, greenish white, 6-angled, pulpy, not juicy.
Trillium underwoodii
Trillium persistens
Trillium underwoodii can cause considerable confusion for the beginning student of the genus. In some ways it closely resembles a small-statured T. cuneatum. As T. underwoodii continues to expand after flowering, it may become somewhat taller and less “ground hugging,” and it then appears similar to a smaller plant of T. decipiens, which grows in parts of the same range, especially when its bracts do not touch the ground at anthesis. It also has vague similarities to T. reliquum, with which it grows sympatrically in parts of its range. Care should be taken to observe the details of floral structure accurately.
Distribution of Trillium underwoodii is much more restricted than that given by J. K. Small (1933), who indicated a range extending from Alabama to North Carolina and Arkansas.
(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
