''Trillium catesbaei'', also known as bashful trillium,
Catesby's trillium,
or bashful wakerobin,
is a
species of
flowering plant in the
family Melanthiaceae. It is found in the southeastern
United States where its northern limit includes the
Great Smoky Mountains and other parts of
North Carolina and
Tennessee. Its southernmost natural occurrence is in
Escambia County,
Alabama. Most of its populations are in the
Piedmont from
North Carolina to
Alabama, under
deciduous trees such as
American beech
''Fagus grandifolia'', the American beech or North American beech, is a species of beech tree native to the eastern United States and extreme southeast of Canada.
Description
''Fagus grandifolia'' is a large deciduous tree growing to tall, w ...
, various
oak and
hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...
species, and
tulip poplar. Like most
trilliums, it prefers moist,
humus
In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Lati ...
-rich soil in shade.
''Trillium catesbaei'' is a
perennial herbaceous plant that spreads by means of underground
rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
s. Stems are up to 45 cm tall, with white, pink, or rose-colored flowers that sometimes turn darker pink as they get older. Sometimes the flowers are hidden behind green or yellow bracts (hence the "bashful" part of one of the common names).
References
External links
*
Images in the U.S. National Herbarium Plant Image Collection*
catesbaei
Flora of the Southeastern United States
Flora of the Appalachian Mountains
Natural history of the Great Smoky Mountains
Endemic flora of the United States
Least concern flora of the United States
Plants described in 1817
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