Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Triteleia

brodiaea, triplet-lily, triteleia
Habit Herbs, perennial, scapose, from fibrous-coated corms.
Leaves

1–3, basal;

blade narrowly lanceolate (linear in Triteleia ixioides), keeled, channeled, glabrous, margins entire.
Scape

erect, cylindrical, 1–5 mm diam., rigid.
Inflorescences

umbellate, open, bracteate;

bracts green (purplish in T. lemmoniae), ± lanceolate, scarious.
Flowers

perianth 6-tepaled, connate proximally into tube of varying length and shape, usually funnelform, lobes similar, usually ascending to spreading;

stamens 6, epitepalous;

filaments distinct, adnate to perianth tube in 1 or 2 rows, equal or of 2 unequal lengths, free portions flattened, sometimes dilated at base to form triangle, apical appendages usually absent, when present sometimes forming a crown;

anthers versatile, usually curving away from stigma;

pistil 3-carpellate;

ovary superior, green or colored like perianth (yellow in T. peduncularis, white in T. clementina), stipitate, 3-locular, ovules anatropous, 2–several per locule;

style 2–4 mm;

stigma weakly 3-lobed;

pedicel ± erect, often articulate, usually longer than perianth (shorter in T. crocea).
Fruits

capsular, ovoid, dehiscence loculicidal.
Seeds

black, ridged on 1 side, subglobose, rounded, coarsely and irregularly pitted, minutely granulate or granulate-reticulate, coat with crust.
x

= 7, 8.

Triteleia
Distribution
from USDA
w North America; n Mexico
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 15 (14 in the flora).

For discussion of relationships, see under Brodiaea.

Molecular evidence (J. C. Pires 2000) suggests the artificiality of the subgenera and sections that have been recognized within Triteleia, consistent with R. F. Hoover (1941), who recognized sections for reasons of convenience only. Thus, those infrageneric taxa are not utilized here.

Several species of Triteleia are exceedingly variable, and polyploidy is common: multiples of both x = 7 and x = 8 occur, suggesting that chromosomal changes have played a significant evolutionary role within the genus (M. P. Burbanck 1941).

Triteleia is widely distributed west of the Rocky Mountains, but its greatest diversity is in the “Klamath area” of northwestern California and southern Oregon. The corms of some species were eaten by native Americans.

Among the most important diagnostic characters within Triteleia are features of the androecium, particularly stamen height and insertion relative to the perianth, and the presence of apical filament appendages. These characters are easily seen in the field with a hand lens. When collecting flowering specimens, one should make a point of mounting a few dissected flowers in a manner that displays these critical characters.

The only Triteleia species that does not occur in the flora, T. guadalupensis L. W. Lenz, is endemic to Guadalupe Island off Baja California.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Stamens attached alternately at 2 levels on perianth tube, forming 2 rows of 3.
→ 2
1. Stamens all attached at same level at throat of perianth tube.
→ 6
2. Perianth tube obtuse and rounded at base; ovary twice as long as stipe.
T. grandiflora
2. Perianth tube acute or attenuate at base; ovary shorter than or equal to stipe (slightly longer than stipe in T. crocea).
→ 3
3. Stamens unequal, alternately long and short.
→ 4
3. Stamens equal in length or nearly so.
→ 5
4. Pedicel 0.7–2 cm; perianth 12–19 mm, bright yellow or pale blue; ovary green.
T. crocea
4. Pedicel 2–10(–18) cm; perianth 15–28 mm, white, often flushed violet or lilac abaxially; ovary bright yellow.
T. peduncularis
5. Perianth 16–27 mm, lavender; anthers purple, 1.5 mm; endemic to San Clemente Island.
T. clementina
5. Perianth 18–47 mm, pale blue, sometimes deep bluish purple or white; anthers white to bluish, 2–5 mm; widespread in California.
T. laxa
6. Stamens unequal, alternately long and short.
→ 7
6. Stamens equal in length or nearly so.
→ 9
7. Longer filaments rounded apically.
T. lugens
7. Longer filaments not rounded apically.
→ 8
8. Apical filament appendages short, blunt, or absent; perianth tube ca. equal to lobes.
T. dudleyi
8. Apical filament appendages pointed, conspicuous; perianth tube much shorter than or equal to lobes.
T. ixioides
9. Perianth 27–45 mm, tube strongly attenuate, lobes shorter than tube.
T. bridgesii
9. Perianth 7–23 mm, tube turbinate, bowl-shaped, or funnelform and moderately attenuate at base, lobes 2–3 times longer than tube.
→ 10
10. Perianth tube funnelform, attenuate at base, lobes ca. twice as long as tube.
→ 11
10. Perianth tube turbinate or shallowly bowl-shaped, lobes 2–3 times longer than tube.
→ 12
11. Perianth 12–17 mm; filaments more than 1/2 as long as perianth lobes.
T. montana
11. Perianth 18–26 mm; filaments less than 1/2 as long as perianth lobes.
T. hendersonii
12. Perianth bright yellow to deep orange, turbinate; Arizona.
T. lemmoniae
12. Perianth white, blue, or lilac, shallowly bowl-shaped; not in Arizona.
→ 13
13. Filaments usually triangular-dilated, hyaline vesicles absent from perianth tube; usually moist soils, widespread.
T. hyacinthina
13. Filaments always linear, hyaline vesicles present in perianth tube; dry rocky outcrops, volcanic hills and mesas of n California.
T. lilacina
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 338. Author: J. Chris Pires.
Parent taxa Liliaceae
Subordinate taxa
T. bridgesii, T. clementina, T. crocea, T. dudleyi, T. grandiflora, T. hendersonii, T. hyacinthina, T. ixioides, T. laxa, T. lemmoniae, T. lilacina, T. lugens, T. montana, T. peduncularis
Synonyms Brodiaea section Calliprora, Brodiaea subg. Calliprora, Brodiaea subg. Hesperoscordum, Brodiaea section Seubertia, Brodiaea subg. T., Calliprora, Hesperoscordum, Seubertia
Name authority Douglas ex Lindley: Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 15: under plate 1293. (1830)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers