Trilliums, Trilliums, Trilliums and other neat stuff in Tennessee and North Carolina — 2016-04-30

Fasten your seat belts, Folks, because this will be a rather lengthy blog report. It will cover an early morning trip to Hamblen County, Tennessee and then a detour to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina on our way back home.

Let me set the stage for our first adventure: Having seen the excellent Flickr images by my good friend, Jim Petranka, of a newly described Trillium, Trillium tennesseense or Tennessee Trillium, Alan Cressler and Steve Bowling (both from Atlanta, Georgia) and I wanted to study it and photograph it for ourselves. Alan and Steve had spent the night before at my house in Greenville, South Carolina after locating and photographing a rare Heartleaf called Hexastylis naniflora or Dwarf-flower Heartleaf in neighboring Spartanburg County, South Carolina. That trip report can be seen here.

Newly opened Tennessee Trillium

There are dozens of Trillium species in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee, some globally rare, and this one is the newest one. It was discovered by property owners in rural Hamblen County, Tennessee in 2012 and described by staff at the University of Tennessee in 2013. They had seen it on their property and wondered if it might be related to the similar looking and equally rare, Trillium oostingii or Wateree Trillium found in the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas. Here is a link to my blog report for our visit to the Trillium oostingii site in 2013.

The leaves and flowers of both species are very similar, but the biggest difference between Trillium tennesseense and its look-alike cousin, Trillium oostingii is its fragrance. When in full bloom the flower smells, to some people, like the old-fashioned shoe polish. To me, though, it smells like creosote. In addition, the longer stamens and shorter ovary help differentiate it from Trillium oostingii. Here are some images of the plants from the Hamblen County location. I hope these images will demonstrate some of the variations of the petal shape and coloration that we saw in this particular population:

The plants prefer a habitat of rich, undisturbed, woodland slopes with good drainage, usually found on the flood plain of small streams and creeks. These habitat characteristics also fit the growing preference of many of our native Trillium populations. We were shown an area of many hundreds of plants by our host, who was more than generous with her time and patience as we set about photographing these wonderful flowering plants.

In the same vicinity, we found other interesting wildflowers. One of these is the exploding, star-like flowers of Actaea pachypoda or Doll’s Eyes. It is given this common name because of the eye-like appearance of its poisonous seeds:

Another wildflower which I had seen before, but never photographed it in flower, is the low-growing Sedum ternatum or Woodland Stonecrop. Its succulent leaves and white, spiky flowers added an accent to the otherwise drab, forest floor:

Rising some 8 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) above our heads were the last, leathery flowers of Asimina triloba or Common PawPaw:

Although I’ve not been lucky enough to taste it, the PawPaw fruit is revered among locals. Its taste is described by some as “a riot of mango-banana-citrus”, which is unusual given its humble, deciduous forest origins.

After a lengthy photography session and enlightening discussion with the property owner, we walked back to the house after sampling some tasty flowers of a Robinia pseudoacacia or Black Locust tree. The wonderful, pea-like flowers are crisp and taste like fresh spring greens with a subtle flavor of wildflowers. They work great in salads or just off the tree. Just make sure you check the flowers for insects before you munch away… Here’s an “artsy” image I took of a Black Locust branch with flowers a couple of years ago:

We hung around a while thanking the owner for her generosity and patience and talking about her discovery, then we headed on to our next stop — the Blue Ridge Parkway. But as we were leaving the property, I spotted a group of Tennessee Trillium growing just beside the road. It was a very nice clump of about a dozen flowering plants. I just had to stop to photograph it:

Nearby, I also spotted a large clump of Heartleaf. According to Steve, it is Hexastylis arifolia var. ruthii or Ruth’s Little Brown Jugs. What a fitting name for these odd, little flowers!:

Finally, it was time to head on down to the Blue Ridge Parkway, where I wanted to show Alan and Steve the Trillium grandiflorum or Large-flower Trillium site I had photographed the week before. When we reached the entrance to the Parkway, dark clouds were building and rain threatened to pour down at any minute. But we had driven quite a distance to get here, and we were not going to let a little rain stop us.

As we neared the hillside where I had recently photographed the Trillium grandiflorum, Steve spotted a different slope, one just covered with Trillium flowers. I definitely had not seen these just a week before. How they had hidden themselves in plain sight, I do not know. Most of the flowers had begun to turn pink, as the flowers of this species usually do when they age. We continued on to the familiar site, and saw that they, too, were turning pink and looking a bit tattered. So we decided to proceed up the road to see what else awaited us.

Alan also wanted to photograph Rhododendron vaseyi or Pinkshell Azalea if we could find any in bloom. I knew of one particular group of plants that grows near the Looking Glass Falls Overlook. We were not far from there, so I pointed the truck in that direction and drove on ahead. Just before reaching that spot, however, I spotted a fresh group of Trillium grandiflorum right next to the road, so I slowed down to check it out. We had been gaining altitude all the while, so these plants were just a bit behind in blooming from the ones we had just seen. They were fresh and sparkling white. To make things much better, there were also many fresh Trillium erectum or Erect Trillium flowers in a multitude of color forms from pale yellow to deep maroon. First, I’ll show you a couple of the immaculately fresh, Trillium grandiflorum flowers I managed to photograph in the first of the showers of rain that we would soon be experiencing:

As the rain increased, I moved on to shoot some of those colorful Erect Trillium flowers. I had never seen such a variation in flower color in this species before now. Here is just a taste of these spectacular flowers. I’ll begin with the typical color for this species, dark red or maroon:

Next, there are the pale yellow ones:

Finally, there are the oddly colored/speckled ones:

Before leaving the rain to head for the shelter of my truck, I photographed this beautiful clump of bright red Trillium erectum:

By now the wind was gusting and the rain was pouring down. We all agreed that we could have spent hours at this spot, but I was soaked and so was my camera equipment. So we all piled back into the truck and continued west, hoping to escape the unforgiving weather as we gained altitude along the Parkway.

Soon, we reached the spot where I hoped to find Pinkshell Azalea in bloom. Sure enough, there were several nice plants in full bloom just down the steep slopes of the edge of the roadway. I pulled in to the overlook and parked. By now, it had stopped raining, but we were high enough to literally be in the clouds. The fog was so thick that I could hardly see my hand in front of me. This is not a problem for macro photography, though, where the subject is within spitting distance of the camera lens.

While I was setting up to shoot the Pinkshell Azalea, Alan had found a sizable population of another Trillium, Trillium undulatum or Painted Trillium. Both the Azalea and Trillium were blooming about two weeks early this year! Normally, I would expect to see them in flower around mid-May, but here it was April 30! What’s going on!?!

Fearing that the weather would turn bad on us again, we hurriedly set about photographing the beautiful flowers in front of us. Here are some shots I got of raindrop-covered Pinkshell Azalea — one of the loveliest of the native Rhododendron species, in my opinion:

By now, the clouds and fog were so thick that there was very little light in the woods. Alan wanted to switch locations with me, so I agreed and went down slope to photograph the Painted Trillium. These beauties were in perfect form — some still in bud. So I picked out a handful of best ones and went about taking pictures. Here are a few of those we photographed:

While looking around for perfect specimens, I stumbled across the very rare albino Painted Trillium! Alan had photographed one a few years ago in northeast Georgia, but I was not aware of their existence. Here was a group of four of them right in front of me! What a sight. They are just like the typical ones but without the dark red striping in the center of the flower:

By now, Alan and Steve had heard my squeal of surprise at finding these albino flowers, and they had come over to photograph them for themselves. It was now so dark that there was barely time for one last shot of the Painted Trillium, so I found one that was decked out in rain drops:

We finished up at this spot, cold and wet from the fog and rain, but really happy with the day’s finds. I managed to photograph the rare Tennessee Trillium in Tennessee and an unusual albino form of Painted Trillium along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. In addition, we saw a large swarm of Erect Trillium in full bloom with many color forms as well as one of the loveliest native Azaleas in the eastern United States — btw, one that is endemic to only a few counties in the highest elevations of the Southern Appalachian mountains. Although we were tired and wet, we laughed and chatted all the way back down the mountain to Brevard, North Carolina where we feasted on a well-deserved, Mexican meal. Good times with good friends — it couldn’t get any better…

–Jim