Pale Yellow Trillium

Description:

Pale yellow trillium (also known as mottled wakerobin, small yellow toadshade, pale trillium, and faded trillium) arising from a rhizome that is 2 to 3 centimeter (cm) in length by approximately 1.5 to 2 cm in diameter. Its stems are green in color, often purple tinged and 1 to 2.5 decimeters (dm) in height. Its three sessile leaves are mottled with lighter green and purple shades, ovate to widely elliptic, acute to acuminate and 6 to 7.5 cm in lenght by 4.5 to 7 cm in width. The flowers are sessile with erect and develope from late March to early May. The divergent sepals are 1.5 to 3 cm in length by 7 to 10 millimeters (mm) in width and typically 2/3 the length of the petals. The petals are cream to pale yellow, spatulate to oblanceolate and 2.5 cm in length by 10 to 15 mm in width. The stamens are purple and 8 to 12 mm in length, the filaments are 1 to 3 mm in length. The stigmas of pale yellow trillium are erect to divergent (Radford et. al. 1968).

Habitat:

Pale yellow trillium inhabits a variety or habitats including wooded slopes usually on circumneutral to basic soils (Radford et al. 1968); rich cove forests (Weakley 2002), rich, open oak-pine woods and switch cane brakes, on rocky bluffs, ravine slopes, or alluvial clay soils, or mesic lower slopes of drainages over amphibolite (NatureServe Explorer 2005).

Sites may be low to moderate in elevation, mesic, sheltered and may be quite rocky. The dense forest canopy can contain a diverse mixture of mesophytic trees such as yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), sweet birch (Betula lenta), black cherry (Prunus serotina), and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). The open understory may contain flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), American hop hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), umbrella-tree (Magnolia tripetala), and ironwood (Ostrya virginiana). The shrub layer is typically open containing sparse shrubs and may include common spicebush (Lindera benzoin), alternateleaf dogwood (Cornus alternifolia), and wild hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens). The herbaceous layer is often lush with a diverse number of species and also with a number of rare species often present. Some herbaceous level species present include black bugbane (Cimicifuga racemosa), red trillium (Trillium erectum), pale touch-me-not (Impatiens pallida), jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), and violets (Viola spp.) Uncommon herbaceous species including Federally and state listed flora often found in these areas include Small-whorled Pogonia (Isotria medeoloides), and American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) (NatureServe Explorer 2005).

Range:

Pale yellow trilliums are restricted to mountainous areas of the Savannah River drainage of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia (NatureServe Explorer 2005). It is endemic to the Savannah River drainage of northwestern South Carolina, northeast Georgia, and southwestern North Carolina occuring in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont. In North Carolina, the species is restricted to scattered sites along the Whitewater and Thompson rivers (Weakley 2002).