In Search of Edna's Trillium

 

Edna's trillium (Trillium persistens)

This past week I had a chance to participant in a rare plant survey. Georgia DNR personnel in the Nongame Conservation Section do periodic plant surveys to measure how well rare plants are doing in known locations. This year’s survey was a follow up to one done in 2021. The plant being surveyed is a small trillium known as Edna’s trillium (Trillium persistens). The common name honors Edna Garst who suspected it was unique in early 1970 after finding it near Lake Yonah, a reservoir that sits between Georgia and South Carolina. The species name persistens was chosen because the plants often stay present after other trillium species have gone dormant.

The survey was led by DNR staff. We learned that this trillium species prefers pine-hemlock forests and is potentially affected by the decline of hemlocks (Tsuga sp.) because of the woolly adelgid pest. The terrain was extremely steep, and the area had plenty of downed trees and limbs; we passed at least one hemlock with an active woolly adelgid infestation. The area was also very thick with Rhododendron, both maximum and minus species. There were times when I felt like this is what early explorers must have traversed, nicknaming such places as ‘laurel hell’ (Rhododendron maximum is called ‘great laurel’).

Flowers turn to pink as they age (Trillium persistens)

While it was a challenging trek to count these plants, it was a thrill to be there and to find these little plants tucked here and there. It was fun to discover what else lived among the trilliums and the rhododendrons. Three plants were in particular abundance: variable leaf ginger (Hexastylis heterophylla); sweet white violet (Viola blanda); and fuchsia-colored gaywings (Polygaloides paucifolia). Some populations of gaywings were so numerous that we could see them from a distance. Robust clumps of ginger had ornate flowers to discover if one would only brush away the leaf litter to see them (and I did!).

Variable leaf ginger (Hexastylis heterophylla)

A more mottled leaf and flowers

Close up of flower (H. heterophylla)

Other plants we saw included beetlewand (Galax urceolata); the flowers were just emerging but it was the foliage that was so handsome: both green and burgundy leaves were present. Ferns were abundant, especially in the damp areas where cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum) fronds were starting to rise above their thick rhizomes. In the drier areas and on slopes, Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) was the dominant one. Interesting trees included witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), silverbell (Halesia), sweet birch (Betula lenta), and Fraser’s magnolia (Magnolia fraseri). Highland doghobble (Leucothoe fontanesiana) tried to hobble us where it grew thickly near the streams.

Gaywings (Polygaloides paucifolia)

Galax urceolata

Plant surveys are important work. Volunteers like me provide just a small amount of help; it is the staff at GA DNR that are pulling these together and doing most of the work. There were 7 of us on this all day trek; 5 of those folks were GA DNR botanists and ecologists. I encourage you to support their work by advocating for them and even by donating to the Nongame Conservation Section.

Sweet while violet (Viola blanda)

Highland doghobble (Leucothoe fontanesiana)