Trillium maculatum
Trillium maculatum, the spotted wakerobin or spotted trillium, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. It is a member of the Trillium cuneatum complex, a closely related group of sessile-flowered trilliums. The species is endemic to the southeastern United States, ranging across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and northern Florida.
Description
Trillium maculatum is a perennial, herbaceous, flowering plant that persists by means of an underground rhizome. Like all trilliums, it has a whorl of three bracts and a single trimerous flower with three sepals, three petals, two whorls of three stamens each, and three carpels. It has a sessile flower, erect petals, and mottled leaves. Its flower petals are deep red or reddish-purple but occasionally yellow.Taxonomy
Trillium maculatum was named and described by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1830. The specific epithet maculatum means "spotted", a reference to the conspicuously marked leaves of some forms of this species. Although Rafinesque described a plant with spotted stems, later authors have not confirmed that character.In his description of Trillium sessile in 1753, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus referred to an earlier description and illustration of a taxon published by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in 1730. However, Catesby's illustration was identified as Trillium maculatum by the American botanist John Daniel Freeman in 1975. As a result of Linnaeus' misinterpretation of Catesby's illustration, numerous authors erroniously applied the name Trillium sessile prior to 1830.
Trillium maculatum is a member of the Trillium cuneatum complex, a group of eight taxa including Trillium luteum and Trillium cuneatum. All members of the complex are sessile-flowered trilliums.