4. Trillium recurvatum L.C. Beck (purple trillium, bloody butcher, purple wake robin)

Pl. 108 d; Map 440

Aerial stems 15–40 cm long. Leaves 7–15 cm long, more than 2 times longer than wide, lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, the tips pointed, usually slightly acuminate, narrowed to a short petiole, usually mottled, the upper surface lacking stomates or with only a few near the tip. Flowers erect, sessile. Sepals reflexed from the base and pointing downward at flowering, 20–25 mm long, lanceolate to narrowly triangular, sometimes purplish tinged, rarely entirely purple or maroon. Petals 20–35 mm long, erect or arching inward, narrowed to a stalklike base 4–8 mm long, the expanded portion lanceolate to ovate, maroon, rarely yellow or yellowish green. Stamens 8–17 mm long, less than half as long as the petals. Ovary with 6 wings. Fruits erect. 2n=10. April–May.

Common in eastern Missouri and scattered in central and southern counties (Ohio to Iowa south to Alabama and Texas). Mesic bottomland forests and mesic upland forests on lower slopes and bottoms of valleys and ravines, less commonly on shaded, grassy roadsides and edges of old fields.

The flowers of this species sometimes have a faint, fetid aroma, which is less strong than that of T. sessile flowers. Care should be taken in using the presence of a petiole to distinguish T. recurvatum from T. sessile, as immature leaves of the former sometimes have not developed the elongated petiole yet.

Several color forms appear sporadically within populations of T. recurvatum. Plants with purple to maroon sepals have been called f. petaloideum Steyerm., whereas those with yellow to yellowish green petals are known as f. shayi E.J. Palmer & Steyerm. An aberrant, perhaps diseased form in which the floral parts have been changed into leaflike structures has been called f. foliosum Steyerm.