twisted trillium, Trillium stamineum

Twisted trillium? That's not the name you will most often hear for this one. Perhaps it would be Blue Ridge trillium, at USDA and other sources. A nice moniker. Better if it actually occurred in the Blue Ridge. Perhaps because of that, some people where it actually does grow have a different name. A very different name. What do we think about airplane propeller trillium? That's one of the more unexpected plant names! So, how about twisted? It does look like it's gone just a little berserk. And those three narrow little petals do twist, often more than you see here. Whatever you call it, it grows in woods along the Alabama-Mississippi border and north from there into Tennessee. Photographed in the garden of Roberta and Fred Case, Saginaw Co MI, 5/8/81.