keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

1136 TYPHACEAE
bract length); flowers sessile or subsessile (pedicel 3 mm or less long), with a faint fetid aroma;
sepals abruptly recurved basally and � held against scape, green or streaked with purple, (15–)
20–30(–35) mm long; petals erect, dark purple to yellowish green or yellow, lanceolate to oblanceolate
or ovate, distinctly clawed, 18–40(–50) mm long; anthers 5–16 mm long; gynoecium ca.
reaching bases of anthers; ovary 6-angled or -winged; fruit 6-angled to nearly winged. Alluvial
banks in rich mesic hardwood forests, typically neutral soils that are moist due to seepage; Rusk
(BRIT), Nacogdoches (Freeman 1970; Nixon et al. 1970; TOES 1993), and Shelby (Singhurst et al.
2002b) cos. in the Pineywoods; ec U.S. from OH and AL w to WI and TX. Mar–May. First reported
for TX by Nixon et al. (1970). (TOES 1993: IV) �/305
Trillium viridescens Nutt., (greenish), LONG-PETALED TRILLIUM, OZARK GREEN TRILLIUM, OZARK
TRILLIUM. Plant 20–50(–59) cm tall; leaf-like bracts ovate-elliptic to broadly ovate or elliptic, 9–
14(–15) cm long, rounded to acute (acuminate to the n of TX), sessile, not mottled or only obscurely
so, sometimes (not usually) with stomata on upper (= adaxial) leaf epidermis at the
apex; flowers sessile, with musty-spicy odor similar (according to some) to rotting apples or
spoiled fruit; sepals spreading, green or with purple tinge, 3.5–5.4(–6.5) cm long; petals erect or
nearly so, variable in color, greenish purple or greenish, with a purple claw, sometimes purple or
yellowish green throughout, linear-spatulate to narrowly spatulate, 4.3–8(–8.5) cm long; anthers
13–20 mm long; ovary 6-angled; fruit 6-ridged, rarely winged. Rich woods, wooded slopes,
sandy or clay soils; Nacogdoches (BAYLU), Harrison, Marion, Red River (Freeman 1970), Bowie,
and Sabine (Singhurst et al. 2002b) cos. in the n Pineywoods and Red River drainage; AR, KS,
MO, OK, and TX. Apr–early May. These TX populations are the s extreme of the range of the
species (Freeman 1970). While treating it as a separate species, Churchill (1986b) suggested that
T. viridescens might be better treated as a subspecies of T. viride L.C. Beck. Yatskievych (1999)
also discussed the similarities between T. viridescens and T. viride; he indicated the most reliable
morphological character distinguishing them is the distribution of stomata on the bracts—
evenly distributed over the abaxial leaf surface in T. viride and lacking or only at the leaf tip in
T. viridescens; he suggested that ambiguities in other characters lend weight to the opinions of
those botanists who would prefer to treat the two taxa as varieties or subspecies of T. viride or
simply not recognize T. viridescens as distinct. Freeman (1975) raised the possibility of introgression
between T. viridescens and T. gracile. This species is cited by Case (2002) as being of
conservation concern. �/305
TYPHACEAE Juss.
CAT-TAIL FAMILY
AA very small (8–13 species—Smith 2000), cosmopolitan family of wind-pollinated and
wind-dispersed plants represented by a single genus. Typha and Sparganium (Sparganiaceae)
are quite similar, and it has been suggested that the two are best united into a single family
(Thorne 1993c; Mabberley 1997; Kubitzki 1998b; Judd et al. 1999). Thieret and Luken (1996)
quoted Müller-Doblies (1970) as saying that the “… obvious differences may be explained to a
large extend [sic] by an adaptation of Typha to anemochory [wind dispersal].” However, the most
recent monographers of Sparganium (Cook & Nicholls 1986, 1987) noted that the two groups
are clearly distinct morphologically and have been so since at least the Oligocene (ca. 38 to 23
million years ago). They concluded that there is no purpose in uniting the two families, and significant
disadvantages—e.g., nomenclatural instability. (subclass Commelinidae–Cronquist; order
Poales—APG II)
FAMILY RECOGNITION IN THE FIELD: large perennial herbs with elongate, sublinear, spongy, 2ranked
leaves and dense, felty, brown, cylindrical inflorescences divided into a male portion
above and a female portion below; typically found in wet places.