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 (leaves) and a single
trimerous flower with three
sepals, three
petals, two whorls of three
stamens each, and three
carpels (fused into a single
ovary with three
stigmas).[7] It has a
sessile flower (no flower stalk), erect petals, and mottled leaves.[8] Its flower petals are deep red or reddish-purple but occasionally yellow.[6]
Taxonomy
Trillium maculatum was first described by
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1830.[3] The
specific epithetmaculatum means "spotted",[9] a reference to the conspicuously marked leaves of some forms of this species.[10] Although Rafinesque described a species with spotted stems,[11] later authors have not confirmed that character.[citation needed]
Trillium maculatum is a member of the
Trillium cuneatum complex, a group of eight
taxa including Trillium luteum and Trillium cuneatum (in the strict sense).[12] All members of the complex are sessile-flowered trilliums (
Trillium subgen. Sessilia).
^USDA, NRCS (n.d.).
"Trillium maculatum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
^"Trillium maculatum". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2023.