Trillium viride |
Trillium erectum |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
green trillium, wood wakerobin |
birthwort, red trillium, red wakerobin, stinking Benjamin, stinking willie, wake-robin |
|||||
Rhizomes | horizontal, brownish, short, slender to stout, praemorse, not brittle. |
short, thick, praemorse. |
||||
Scapes | 1–3, round in cross section, 2.3–3.4+ dm, ± slender, smooth to scabrous below bracts. |
1–2, often with numerous offsets forming heavy clumps, round in cross section, 1.5–6 dm, ± robust, glabrous. |
||||
Bracts | held well above ground, sessile; blade green to bluish green, weakly mottled, rarely unmottled, mottling becoming obscure with age, adaxial surface covered with numerous stomata easily visible under a lens, occasionally visible as tiny white dots to the naked eye, narrowly to broadly elliptic, 8–20.5 × 5–8 cm, not glossy, apex blunt to rounded-acute. |
sessile; blade bright green, lacking dark pigmentation, major veins prominent, broadly rhombic to ovate-rhombic, 5–20 × 5–20 cm, about as broad as long, widest near middle, base attenuate, apex acuminate. |
||||
Flower | erect, odor of decayed fruit; sepals displayed above bracts, widely spreading, distal 1/2 often weakly declined, green, lanceolate-acute, 28–60 × 7–9 mm, margins entire, apex acute; petals long-lasting, erect to widely spreading, ± connivent, ± concealing stamens and ovary, green, yellowish green, yellow, or variously purple streaked throughout, especially basally (rarely all purplish green), not spirally twisted, narrowly spatulate to linear-spatulate, 3.5–6.8 × 0.5–1.5 cm, widest above middle, thick-textured, base narrowed and thickened, ± forming claw, margins entire, apex obtuse, lacking nipple; stamens relatively straight-erect to slightly incurved, 15–25 mm; filaments brown-olive, 3–5.5 mm, dilated basally; anthers erect, straight, olive-brown or purplish, 8–21 mm, ± slender, dehiscence introrse-latrorse; connectives olive, straight, very slightly (± 0.5 mm) extended beyond sacs; ovary greenish basally, olive-purplish distally, ellipsoid to ovoid, deeply angled, 5–12 mm; stigmas spreading-erect, recurved, distinct, sessile, olive or purplish, subulate, 5–10 mm, somewhat fleshy. |
erect, ascending, or proximal to but above bracts, odor fetid, like a wet dog; perianth open, flat; sepals flat to sulcate apically, green, often streaked or overlain with maroon, occasionally entirely dark maroon, lanceolate-acuminate, 10–50 mm, equaling petals, ± 1/2 petal width, texture leafy, margins entire, apex acuminate; petals spreading, carried in same plane as sepals or ascending slightly, dark reddish brown, maroon, purple, or white, sometimes pale yellow, major adaxial veins prominent and appearing somewhat engraved, usually flat, lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, or occasionally ovate, 1.5–5 × 1–3 cm, 2 times sepal width, widest near base, heavy-textured, apex acuminate; stamens erect to slightly recurved, 5–15 mm; filaments white, pinkish, or dark purple, ± equaling anthers, but variable within local populations, thin; anthers erect or weakly recurving, dark maroon, grayish maroon, or yellowish, strongly yellow when pollen exposed, 5–12 mm, dehiscence introrse; ovary dark purple to maroon, even in white-flowered forms, ovoid, elliptic to globose, 6-angled, angles forming very low ridges when fruit is ripe, 5–10 mm, broadly attached at base; stigmas recurved, distinct, dark purple, not lobed adaxially, subulate, short, 3–7 mm, ca. 1/2 or less length of ovary at anthesis, fleshy; pedicel straight, erect, or somewhat declined but not strongly recurved below bracts, 1–10+ cm. |
||||
Fruits | greenish white, odorless, ovoid, angled, 1–1.5 cm, somewhat pulpy, not juicy. |
dark maroon, weakly fragrant of fruit, ± globose to slightly pyramidal, 1–1.6 × 1–1.5 cm, juicy. |
||||
2n | = 10. |
= 10. |
||||
Trillium viride |
Trillium erectum |
|||||
Phenology | Flowering spring (late Apr–May). | |||||
Habitat | Rich woods, bluffs, rocky hillsides with some limestone outcrops, woodsy, humusy soil over fairly stiff, clayey substrate | |||||
Elevation | 100–200 m (300–700 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
IL; MO
|
e North America
|
||||
Discussion | Trillium viride has long been confused with T. luteum of the Smoky Mountain region, though it is far more slender and delicate than T. luteum. Because the pallid forms and so-called albinos of many other sessile trilliums described in written accounts sound much like the description of this plant, early authors ascribed far too wide a range to T. viride. The plant is closely limited to the woodlands of the counties adjacent to the Missouri River in northeastern Missouri and southern Illinois. Although the ranges of Trillium viride and the very similar T. viridescens do not overlap, both species grow in Missouri, and authors earlier than J. D. Freeman (1975) frequently combined the two as a single species. If all other means of identification fail, the prevalence of numerous stomates on the adaxial bract surface, seen under magnification, will always distinguish T. viride. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 116. | FNA vol. 26, p. 98. | ||||
Parent taxa | Liliaceae > Trillium > subg. Phyllantherum | Liliaceae > Trillium > subg. Trillium | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | L. C. Beck: Amer. J. Sci. Arts 11: 178. (1826) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 340. (1753) | ||||
Web links |