Sabine River Wakerobin

Rhizomes horizontal, brownish, thick, short, praemorse, not brittle. Scapes 1–3, round in cross section, 1.6–3.5 dm, slender, glabrous. Bracts held well above ground, sessile; blade mottled with darker green blotches, mottling becoming obscure with age, elliptic-ovate to obovate, 6–8.5 × 2.6–4 cm, base rounded, apex obtuse or rounded, rarely acute. Flower odor musty or funguslike; sepals displayed above bracts, bases at right angle to scape axis, widely spreading with recurved tips, dark purple on adaxial surface, lanceolate to oblong, 20–25 × 4–5 mm, margins entire, apex obtuse; petals long-lasting, erect, weakly connivent, at least partially obscuring stamens, dark purple or maroon, rarely yellow, not spirally twisted, linear-elliptic to oblanceolate, 2–4 × 0.3–0.8 cm, ± thick-textured, margins entire, flat, apex acute; stamens erect, 12–16.5 mm; filaments purple, 2–3 mm, slender; anthers erect, straight, purple to yellow, 10–15 mm, slender, dehiscence introrse; connectives straight, extending 0.1–1 mm beyond anther sacs; ovary purple, ovoid, 3-angled, 4–11 mm; stigmas erect, spreading-recurved, distinct, purple to whitish, sessile, subulate, 2–4 mm, fleshy, thickened basally. Fruits dark greenish purple, fragrance not reported, ovoid, swollen enough to conceal its 3-angled nature, 1 cm, pulpy, moist.

La., Tex.

Flowering spring (early--mid Apr).

Mature pine and hardwood forests, banks and ridges of dissected stream- beds, rather dense shade, low sandy flatwoods; 0--10m.

Trillium gracile, commonly known as the Sabine River wakerobin, slender trillium, or graceful trillium, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. It is native to the region along the Sabine River in western Louisiana and eastern Texas. It generally grows in mature pine and hardwood forests, and on riverbanks.

Trillium gracile is a perennial herbaceous plant that spreads by means of underground rhizomes. The stem has 3 bracts in a whorl well above ground, each bract up to 8.5 cm (3.4 inches) long, the blades green mottled with darker green splotches. Flowers are solitary on each scape, purple with a musty-like fragrance.