About Trillium sulcatum T.S.Patrick
Trillium sulcatum T.S.Patrick is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant that survives via an underground rhizome. Like all trilliums, it has a whorl of three leaf-like bracts, and produces a single trimerous flower. This flower has three sepals, three petals, two whorls each containing three stamens, and three carpels that are fused into a single ovary with three stigmas. The flower sits at the top of a long stalk (called a pedicel) that rises above the plant's leaves. The recurved (bent backwards) petals are most often dark red, though occasional white-flowered forms can occur. The fruit produced by the plant is a red berry. Trillium sulcatum is frequently confused with other members of the Trillium erectum group, including Trillium flexipes, Trillium simile, Trillium vaseyi, and especially Trillium erectum. In general, it can be distinguished from these related species by the relative length of its pedicel. Specifically, the sepals of Trillium sulcatum are less than half as long as its pedicel, while the sepals of other members of the group are more than half as long as the pedicel. Trillium sulcatum is most abundant on the Cumberland Plateau, ranging from northeastern Alabama and northwestern Georgia northward through central Tennessee into eastern Kentucky. From Tennessee, its range extends northeast into Virginia, and via the New River drainage, into both West Virginia and North Carolina. Unlike other members of the Trillium erectum complex, it is notably absent from the Great Smoky Mountains and the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. Trillium sulcatum has been recorded occurring in the following counties: in Alabama: DeKalb, Jackson, Marshall; in Georgia: Dade, Walker; in Kentucky: Bell, Carter, Casey, Harlan, Laurel, Lee, Madison, McCreary, Morgan, Perry, Powell, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Wayne, Whitley; in North Carolina: Alleghany, Ashe, Caldwell, Surry, Watauga, Wilkes; in Tennessee: Anderson, Bledsoe, Campbell, Claiborne, Coffee, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Franklin, Grundy, Hamblen, Hamilton, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson, Knox, Lincoln, Marion, Morgan, Pickett, Putnam, Rhea, Roane, Scott, Sequatchie, Sullivan, Van Buren, Warren, White; in Virginia: Buchanon, Carroll, Dickenson, Floyd, Franklin, Giles, Grayson, Henry, Lee, Montgomery, Patrick, Pulaski, Roanoke, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, Wythe; in West Virginia: Fayette, McDowell, Mercer.
