7. Trillium viridescens Nutt. (green trillium)

Pl. 108 g; Map 443

Aerial stems 30–50 cm long. Leaves 8–13(–15) cm long, usually about 2 times longer than wide, broadly ovate to elliptic, the tips sharply pointed to somewhat acuminate, sessile, not or only slightly mottled, the upper surface lacking stomates or with only a few near the leaf tip. Flowers erect, sessile. Sepals spreading to ascending at flowering, 35–55 mm long, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, rarely purplish tinged. Petals 43–75 mm long, erect or nearly so, oblanceolate to nearly linear, broadest above the middle, narrowed to a stalklike base 7–15 mm long, green to yellowish green, sometimes purplish tinged throughout or more commonly toward the base. Stamens 18–27 mm long, less than half as long as the petals. Ovary with 6 angles or wings. Fruits erect. April–June.

Scattered in the southwestern portion of the Ozark Division with an apparently disjunct population in Jefferson County (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas). Mesic upland forests in ravines or valleys and stream banks, usually on calcareous substrates.

The flowers of this species have a musty or spicy odor similar to that of rotting apples. For a discussion of the separation of this species from T. viride, see the treatment of that species.