Day trip into Northwest Georgia — Part 1 – Five Trillium species — 2014-04-05

At 6:00 am on Saturday, April 5, I set out to Atlanta, Georgia to meet my photography and botanizing budy, Alan Cressler. He had suggested that we spend the day visiting some sites he knew about that provided habitat for several Trillium species. It was the perfect time of year to see them in bloom. I’m always up for a trip like that. Shortly after I arrived at Alan’s house, another friend, Steve Bowling drove up and joined us.

We packed our gear in Alan’s car and headed north of the city. On the way up I-75, Alan verified that we were going to meet another naturalist, Max Medley who would make our foursome. We met Max at the Flying-J Truck Stop in Resaca, Georgia. Alan and Max decided that we would first drive to an area known as Cross Plains Flatwoods to see if the rare, Trillium pusillum var. georgianum would be in bloom. There are two common names for this species: Georgia Least Trillium and Georgia Dwarf Trillium:

About ten years ago, I had photographed Trillium pusillum var. pusillum on the Atlantic Coastal Plain of South Carolina, but I had not seen this variety. We arrived at the site and proceeded to cross the road to search for these tiny beauties. We had no sooner entered the woods, that we saw a small group of the plants in full bloom. Within a short distance, there were a number of single plants, each sporting a tiny white or pinkish-white flower:

On the image directly above, you will notice that one of the flowers has traces of pink on the petals. When the flowers are fresh, they are white, but as they age over a period of days, the petals will begin to turn pink until they eventually fall off. Here is an example of a flower with dark pink petals:

These plants grow in a fairly level and open flatwoods. The growing medium is a wet, spongy soil. They are only about 3-4 inches (7.5-10 cm) tall, and each plant will have only one flower. The plants have three narrow leaves. This variety is stoloniferous, meaning that it tends to form clumps of plants by sending out below-ground shoots or runners whose tips will become new plants. We saw several groups of six to ten plants in the immediate area.

Here are a few more shots of these plants:

After photographing these Trillium plants, Max and Alan decided that we should drive to a nearby hillside location for another Trillium species I had never seen — Trillium luteum or Yellow Wakerobin. We soon arrived at the location and parked in a parking lot across the street from the site.

It was just a short walk to the woods and up the hill a bit. Almost immediately, we saw that the hillside was literally covered with blooming plants:

Now it’s time to get serious about capturing some close-up images of these beautiful plants. After looking around and trying to decide which of them I’d photograph first, I noticed that they were not all the same yellow color. Some were yellow-green; some were lemon yellow, and some were pale yellow. That should make things interesting, I thought. Here are some shots of the typical, yellow colored flowers:

While I was photographing the yellow flowers, Alan was busy finding some odd-colored ones. In addition, while Steve was checking out the other botanical wonders at the site, he had found one with light brownish-yellow petals:

We called Alan over to check out what we had found. When he arrived, he showed us an image of one of the prettiest Trillium flowers I have ever seen:

So, I decided to spend the rest of the visit to the site looking for more odd color forms. Steve had offered the hypothesis that these brownish and orangeish forms were actually a hybrid between Trillium luteum and Trillium cuneatum, a species with dark, brownish purple flowers. Since we could not find any Trillium cuneatum at the site, I’m thinking that these weird flowers are merely a different color form. Here are some of the other color forms I found:

What a great trip so far. We finished up and headed back to the car. On our way out, I shot one more image of the hillside:

Now it was time to head to our last Trillium location: Pigeon Mountain. Alan had told me to expect Trillium decumbens or Trailing Trillium, another Trillium species I had not photographed. We finally got to the site and proceeded up the mountain from the parking lot. After a climb of about 100 yards (90 meters), we began to see the flowers of this strange species seemingly scattered directly on the leaf litter of the forest:

This species does have a stem, but it is always bent at such an angle that the leaves and flower are left sitting directly on the ground. This is such a strange sight to me, since all of the other Trillium species I’ve photographed have their leaves and flowers held upright on a stem quite a distance off of the ground. Here are some other shots of this species:

While I was photographing Trailing Trillium, Alan pointed out another species that I had not been fortunate enough to photograph. This species is Trillium lancifolium or Lanceleaf Trillium:

There was only one small group of these, of which only two plants were blooming – the rest were in bud.

The final place we would be visiting is on the other side of Pigeon Mountain — “The Pocket”. This place is so fantastic that it’s difficult to describe. Part of the attraction is the trail that ends at a waterfall. Of all the dozens of different species of spring wildflowers at The Pocket, the one that stands out in my mind is the fifth of the Trillium species that was new to me. This was one that covered the steep hill next to the creek. This one is somewhat of a puzzlement, since it is said to be Trillium flexipes or Nodding Trillium, but it shows traits of several other similar species. In any case, it is a new one to me:

After 18 hours on the road, I finally made it home. This was one day to remember — five new Trillium species checked off of my bucket list. Good friends and good plants… it can’t be better.

–Jim