Trillium vaseyi Harbison

Floden, Aaron J. & Knapp, Wesley M., 2023, Typification of the North American species of Trillium subg. Trillium (Melanthiaceae: Parideae), Phytotaxa 599 (3), pp. 193-200 : 198

Trillium vaseyi Harbison , Biltmore Bot. Stud. 1: 24. 1901.

Type:— USA. North Carolina: M. N. Caro, 1878, Vasey s.n. (US00091979 digital image!, lectotype, designated here: isolectotypes: F0046074 F digital image!, GH00030177 digital image!, NY00319910 digital image!, NY00319911 digital image!, P01776194 digital image!, PH00028410 digital image!) .

Homotypic synonym: Trillium erectum var. vaseyi (Harbison) Ahles, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 80: 172. 1964.

Heterotypic synonym: Trillium vaseyi f. album House , Muhlenbergia 6: 73. 1910. Type:— USA. North Carolina : Haywood Co., No. Pigeon Gap Trail, 4000 ft. alt., 9 May 1909, House 4146 (holotype: US 00091980 digital image!).

Notes:— Harbison (1901) named Trillium vaseyi for G. R. Vasey, who collected this species in the North Carolina mountains in 1878. There are many specimens collected by Vasey in several herbaria. The Biltmore Herbarium was transferred to US, and we select the US collection (00091979) as the lectotype. One of the duplicates at NY (00319911) has a collection number of “ No 477 ” handwritten on the preprinted labels similar to that of most other duplicates. We consider this to be an isolectotype despite the collection number on the label.

Annotations on NCU00000631 were noted by Patrick, and he considered this a syntype because Harbison had labeled it “co-type.” No other collection was mentioned in the protologue aside from Vasey’s gathering .

Trillium vaseyi and T. simile co-occur in some regions, and in these mixed populations they hybridize if their flowering periods overlap ( Case & Case 1997). Although they do share pendent flowers and long anthers, the anther and sometimes pollen color of T. vaseyi is yellow or purple to lavender, whereas that of T. simile is always yellow. Moreover, observation in the field over two decades shows that T. vaseyi typically flowers two to three weeks later than T. simile when they are sympatric (AF pers. obs). Forms of T. vaseyi with white petals still have a reddish ovary and purple anthers ( Peattie 1927).