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Common Name: Catesby's Trillium
Scientific Name: Trillium catesbaei
Family Name: Liliaceae
Native
Pearson Falls Road
Saluda, North Carolina
April 13, 2002
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The flowers of this pedicellate Trillium are about 1-1/2 inches across and may be nodding or on a level with the short-petiolate leaves. Like all other species of Trillium it is a native perennial and is usually found in the deciduous woods and forests of the lower mountains and piedmont of North Carolina. A species of the southeast. April-May [Justice, William S. and Bell, C. Ritchie, Wild Flowers of North Carolina. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1968]
Atop a green to purple stem sits the characteristic whorl of three elliptic leaves which makes trilliums easy to identify. The solitary nodding flower of Catesby's trillium varies from white to pale pink to deep rose. Because the petals of the more common white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) may turn pink as they age, these two species can be confused. To tell the difference, note that the flower of the white trillium stands erect, while that of the Catesby's trillium hangs down. Native to the southern Appalachians and the Piedmont of the Carolinas, this species was named for Mark Catesby, a 17th century English naturalist who explored the southeastern United States. Like some other spring wildflowers, trilliums have ant-dispersed seeds. March-May [White, Peter, Wildflowers of the Smokies. Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, Gatlinburg, 1996]
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Alphabetical Listings -- A B C D, E F G H I, J, K L M N, O P Q, R S T U, V W X, Y, Z
Family Listings -- A B C D, E F G H I, J, K L M N, O P Q, R S T U, V W X, Y, Z
Genus Listings -- A B C D, E F G H I, J, K L M N, O P Q, R S T U, V W X, Y, Z