dwarf trillium, Trillium pusillum

Trillium pusillum has many disjunct populations scattered across the southeast. There is considerable variation among those populations, with several named subspecies. Some plants in the eastern areas have little or no stem between leaves and flowers. This is the one species that defies consistent identification using that feature. The Ozark subspecies is sometimes separated as T. ozarkanum. This trillium grows in woods in AL, AR, GA, KY(E), MD(T), MO, MS, NC(E), OK, SC, TN(E), VA, and WV. With this species, state protected designations vary more because of politics than science. Most of the states in its range that do not protect it have no state program to do that. Garden of Roberta and Fred Case, Saginaw Co MI, 5/8/81.