Mission: The purpose of our trip was to observe trilliums and other plants in the wild, and where possible, make selections for unusual characteristics for propagation and potential introduction. Our timing is a bit early for peak trillium season, but other committments dictated this time frame for this visit.

Participants:

Tony Avent, Plant Delights Nursery, Raleigh NC

Darrell Probst, Garden Visions, Hubbardston MA

Trillium species found:

T. cuneatum

T. cuneatum yellow flowered form

T. discolor

T. catesbaei

T. vaseyi

T. reliquum

T. maculatum

T. decumbens

T. lancifolium

possibly T. simile

possibly T. rugelii

Expedition Notes

Monday 3/23/98

We departed early Monday morning to the western part of NC via I-40 and then turning south on Interstate 85. Just outside of Lexington NC for a stretch break, we stopped beside the road for a brief walk. Imagine my surprise when after walking down the bank, through a patch of brambles along the roadside, we encountered a giant patch of Trillium cuneatum. The area was a very moist forested lowland, where the plants grew in loosely deposited sand.

Despite spending quite a bit of time in the woods as a kid, I had only seen a very few patches of trilliums. The wonderfully mottled foliage came in a variety of patterns. We were also excited to find a small patch of Alopectrum hymale (puttyroot orchid), which is not recorded from here in Davidson County.

Departing our roadside treasure trove, we headed to Lexington NC to visit the garden of Frank and Laura Lu Bell (both lawyers in Lexington). Frank was one of the participants of our 1996 China expedition. Frank and Laura Lu's garden was a virtual treasure trove of wonderful specimens laid out in a wonderful design...more people should make this pilgrimage. After a lunch of famous Lexington style barbeque, we headed out.

From Lexington, we headed south on US 8, stopping often along the way to find the woods quite bare. Finally one of our stops was revealed a marvelous mountain that was being turned into a housing community near High Rock (Davidson County). The scenery was incredible as were the mountainous lots. There was not much undergrowth, except for the mountain streams, which were adorned with some incredible blue flowered Hepatica americana, Iris cristata, and some nice light pink wood anemone (Anemonella thalictroides).

From here, we headed further south, where we stopped at a overpass that was literally smothered in large mountain laurel growing on a steep bank. A quick look around found the area to be covered with some fabulous leaf forms or Asarum minor or possibly Asarum heterophyllum.

Our day ended near Kings Mountain, NC, as we recorded our finds for the day.

Tuesday 3/24/98

Tuesday took us into the South Carolina mountains about 40 miles south of Asheville, NC (Spartanburg County, SC). We had made a wrong turn and after turning around did we spot our first trilliums of the day. Along Hwy 176, we spotted a spectacular large patch growing on the north and east slope of a moist woodland area, beside a ramschackled country nightclub. After burning a role of film, we quickly headed further to the west in hopes of finding more species.

Stopping for gas outside Pickens (Pickens County, SC -537' elevation), I called my friend Bill Head who had offered to show us around. In the meantime, we ventured off into the woods to find a giant patch of Trillium discolor scattered along the roadside for miles. T. discolor is mottled like T. cuneatum, but with yellow flowers that were not yet open.

Further into the woods on the moist hillsides, we found an all green trillium that turned out to be the spectacular red flowered species, T. vaseyi. It was only a few minutes before we were joined by Bill, who found us deep in the forests as if with a sixth sense. He took us up a hill that had been recently logged, but was still filled with some of the most spectacular Asarum heterophyllum plants that I had ever seen. The leaves were from 4-6" across with giant white and red patterned flowers.

Across the top of the hill and down into the next valley brought an interesting surprise...native Yucca filamentosa...the largest ones that I had ever seen. These woodland clumps were easily 4-5' across. Folks are never going to believe that trilliums and yuccas grow side by side in the SC woodlands. The ground was covered with Mitchellia repens (partridge berry) in a particularly large fruited form.

Wandering further down the road, we were greeted with giant patches of galax, including a particularly nice ruffled leaf clone, of which we were able to obtain a sample. Further down the road, we walked under the underpass and along the river to a sheer cliff that was dripping with water. This must have been fishing day for all of the locals, as we warily past by with vision of "Deliverance" in our heads. All along the cliff above us were mountain laurels and giant drifts of Adiantum pedatum (northern maidenhair fern) and more Hepatica Americana...all in flower.. Just a bit further along the road was a bank filled with our native Pachysandra procumbens...great to finally see this plant in the wild. Along the driveway across the road was a small patch of our first sighting of the native Iris verna.

Bill then led us further up the road into Oconee county to Oconee Falls Park, where we saw the largest patch of Trillium cuneatum that you could imagine. Without trying to sound too much like a fisherman, there was easily several million plants including a large number of the yellow flowered variant of T. cuneatum. Walking for nearly 1 hr, the entire ground was carpeted on both sides of the path with T. cuneatum and Podophyllum peltatum (May Apple). As we approached the magnificent waterfall, the banks were literally smothered with Hepatica acutiloba, Asarum heterophylla, and Trillium vaseyi (just emerging). We could have easily spent several days just wandering around with cameras in hand looking at natures riches.

We left just as dark was approaching, and followed Bill to a secret site where we saw our first Shortia Americana (Oconee Bells) in full flower growing alongside a river underneath the mountain laurels...a perfect end to a wonderful day.

After a nice evening meal in the metropolis of Seneca, we hunted for the closest vacant hotel, arriving in Clemson, SC for the evening.

Wednesday 3/25/98

After a quick morning hike around the Chau Ram State Park in SC (nice waterfall and swaying bridge), we crossed over the Savannah River into Georgia. As we entered Georgia, the entire banks were covered in an unusually long leaf form of Carex plantaginea...very different from that which we grow in NC. Again, Hepatica acutiloba was everywhere on the moist bank. This was also our first sighting of what we think was Trillium catesbaei or possibly T. rugelii that was just emerging on the bank. On the lower areas, and the opposite slope was again thousands of Trillium cuneatum, including several patches of solid silver leaf forms.

Most of the stops that day were relatively uninteresting until we reached a logged hillside near Pleasant Hill (Gilmer County, Georgia). What we spotted from the road turned out to be the most exciting find of the day. The hillside was filled with Trillium decumbens. This short species has dark green borders and heavily silver patterned leaves. We found this growing alongside T. cuneatum and what appeared to be an intermediate hybrid. This will await further study. It was sad that there was not time for a complete rescue, as this dry hillside...now sunny will probably not be home to the these trilliums much longer.

As the day wound down, we found ourselves crossing some of our highest points yet (Murray County, Ga). We know this not only from the sick feeling in our stomachs, but from the unique odor of burning brakes as we headed downward. Feeling nervous about our brakes, we took advantage of several of the pulloffs on our way down the mountain. At one of the pull offs, we found some of the largest Trillium cuneatum that we had yet seen, including some with wonderfully ruffled leaves. Darrell was so excited that his camera managed to escape during one of those many stops, so if any of you folks reading this find a camera along highway 52/2, let me know.

Actually, one of the stops in search of his camera turned up a nice patch of Trillium catesbaei growing in a mountain waterfall, amid thousands of Sanguinaria canadensis (bloodroot) in full flower.

We stopped for the evening in the town of La Fayette (Walker Co., Ga.). There was only one hotel left in the town, as the other one had been burned to the ground. The clerk filled us in on the rumor that this fellow from "up north" had borrowed money from organized crime for the hotel, but had not paid them back, so they came to La Fayette, GA and burned his newly renovated hotel for payback. Who says small town life is dull.

Thursday 3/26/98

We headed out of town early to the west, but we didn't get far. Just a few miles out of town (Walker Co., Ga.), we started spotting trilliums...not just a few trilliums, but miles and miles of them. Actually, all along the highway, was solid with Trillium cuneatum, T. decumbens, and a groundcover so thick you couldn't see the ground of Erythronium umbillicatum (trout lilies). Popping up through the trout lilies were marvelous clumps of Dentaria laciniata (toothwort) and Podophyllum peltatum (may apple). As the lowlands began to rise upwards into small hills, the bank was thick with Hepatica americana and Phlox divaricata. It wouldn't have been hard to spend the entire day in this horticultural paradise.

As we approached the Tennessee border on our way to Ruby Falls, we made a few roadside stops. Along side a mountainous housing development, we found our first and only clumps of Asarum shuttleworthii along with Dodecatheon media.

The mountains around Ruby Falls (Whitfield Co, GA, on the GA/TN) line were stunning. The hills alongside the highway were filled with trillium, mostly T. cuneatum. As we approached the falls however, we noticed another species of mottled trillium that was in flower much earlier than the nearby T. cuneatum. Matching the flower and using a trillium key, we concluded that this was the coastal species T. maculatum. Although we are far from being taxonomists, this is the only possible identification for this plant that certainly needs further study, being far outside its documented range.

Even more exciting that the trilliums was a threadlike toothwort (Dentaria multifida). I think this plant has superb potential as a spring woodland candidate. We continued looking around the Chattanooga area in hopes of finding the native Trillium lancifolium. Despite spending hours wandering through bogs of privet and smilax, and ruining several sets of clothes, no luck, so off we went to Atlanta for the evening.

Arriving into Atlanta in late afternoon, our first stop was the magnificent garden of Ozzie and Jitsko Johnson. An extraordinary plant collector, Ozzie was another member of our 1996 China expedition. We were joined by Ron Dettermann of the Atlanta Botanical Garden and his wife Sue for a evening of plant chat.

Friday 3/27/98

Friday was spent in Atlanta visiting gardeners. First, we ventured to the Decatur garden of plantsman Don Jacobs, where we spent most of the morning talking plants and viewing Don's array of treasures. Don has just authored one of two recent books on the genus trillium.

That afternoon, we were off to the garden of hosta guru George Schmid, who toured us around his small but spectacular garden as we watched the hostas begin to emerge.

With a bit of light left, we headed north of town to visit Henning Von Schmulling of the Chatahoochee Nature Center. This private garden/education center is a real gem, filled with many native treasures.

Saturday 3/28/98

This was our day to spend some time at the great Atlanta Botanical Garden before my 2pm lecture. Although I had visited the gardens many times, this was Darrell's first visit, and as always there is never enough time to see everything. I was very pleased to see the rapid development of the new woodland garden.

Immediately after my lecture, we again donned our woodland attire and headed back to Chatanooga (Whitfield Co, GA.), determined to find the Trillium lancifolium. This time with dark rapidly approaching we were finally able to find these narrow leaf clump forming trilliums...growing in a bog among the healthiest patches of poison ivy that you have ever seen....actually, I'm still having trouble typing from some close contact. The floor of the bog was also covered with a nice pink form of Claytonia virginica (First Breath of Spring) and Arisaema triphyllum (Jack in the Pulpit). The most interesting plant here was what appeared to be a giant amaryllis growing in the bog. The large clumps consisted of amaryllis like foliage, large bulbs and old bloom stalks (late March). I was able to obtain a couple of these strange bulbs, and can't wait to see some flowers.

With only a few minutes of light left, we dashed back down Interstate 75 in a futile attempt to find the only colony of Trillium pusillium v. georgianum. This dwarf Georgia native is known from only 1 swampy site along this north-south corridor. Unfortunately, none of our flashlight stops were productive, so we returned to Atlanta for the evening.

Sunday 3/29/98

Departing back to Raleigh, we were able to make a few short stops. We took some detours around the Strom Thurmond Dam, where we found a good bit of Trilliums catesbaei along with some wonderful patterned Oxalis violacea (an overlooked garden plant).

Finally in a sandy moist woodland north of Augusta, we discovered a small bit of the coastal plain form of Trillium maculatum. The mottled foliage is topped by narrow purple petals on this spectacular tall growing species.

Our next stop was near a rest area on the interstate, where we stopped for a map. On a whim, we dashed out into the woods to find the aesculus filled woods brimming with Trillium maculatum, along with the very rare Trillium reliquum (another mottled foliage species). One moist slope was filled with some giant leaf Zephranthes atamasco and Asarum arifolium, all in full flower.

From here, the final stop of the day was above Aiken, SC. where we discovered a recently logged lowland area that was literally filled with thousands of Trillium maculatums...already flagging from the sun and the now baking soil. What a shame that these plants could not be rescued to a new home.

Anyway, time to return home to and expanding spring garden and plenty of pictures and memories...especially a new appreciation for trilliums. I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into the wild world of trilliums. We are currently working with two labs that are producing trilliums from tissue culture on an experimental basis. This will still be a slow proposition, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We hope in the near future to be able to offer selections of trillium clones in commercial quantity, so stay tuned. -tony