Confederate Wakerobin

Description

Trillium reliquum, the Confederate wakerobin, relict trillium, or Confederate trillium, is a monocotyledon species of the Trillium genus, a perennial, flowering, herbaceous plant of the Liliaceae family and found only in the southeastern region of the United States: southwest, central and east central Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee . It is a relict species, meaning there are a few remaining groups of a species that was once more abundant when conditions were different. Significant habitat loss has occurred through clearing of forests for agricultural and pine farm uses. On April 4, 1988, it was officially listed as an endangered species. The common name varies by location. It grows in undisturbed hardwood forests that sometimes include mature pines and that are free of understory plants such as bushes and vines. It likes moist, well-drained soils along the banks of streams and small stream floodplains, mixed with other wildflowers and forest debris. Trillium reliquum was first collected near Augusta in 1901 but was not described as a new species until 1975. In February 2010, hikers found the plant at the Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park in the Florida Panhandle. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is surveying the plants.