EAST TENNESSEE (July 23, 2024) — In May of 2023, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) alerted TennGreen Land Conservancy that a 60-acre swath of land nestled in the forests of Hamblen County known as Union Grove was for sale in East Tennessee—and that the land contains some of the only populations of a Tennessee-native Trillium wildflower.
Union Grove’s owner first alerted University of Tennessee (UT) botanists and researchers to an unusual Trillium in hopes of safeguarding both the wildflowers and the forests containing them. The botanists realized the trillium was nothing they or other botanists had encountered and described it as “new to science” in 2013. To date, the Tennessee Trillium (Trillium tennesseense) has only been found in the Bays Mountain formation areas in Hamblen and Hawkins Counties.
Until this successful collaboration, Trillium tennesseense existed only in private, unprotected areas—the project landowner’s property among them. As the landowner was moving out of Tennessee, they wished to sell their property to an organization that would value the property and seek to protect its incredible habitat. TennGreen Land Conservancy stepped in to quickly acquire the property.
TennGreen then transferred the property to TDEC in June of 2024.
Now under TDEC’s ownership and management, the 60 acres and its population of Tennessee Trillium will be protected for generations of Tennesseans by Union Grove.
This acquisition establishes the first protected population of this state endangered Trillium tennesseense, which only lives in woody hillsides above healthy creeks. The Union Grove area provides such woodland hillsides with full, appropriate drainage, allowing the species to thrive in a niche ecosystem. This herbaceous, long-lived, woodland perennial wildflower is impacted by a variety of threats, including loss of habitat due to development, rooting by feral hogs, and invasive species.
Flowers of this trillium bloom from early to late spring. Three distinct, bright yellow petals project upwards as mirroring broad leaves take in sunlight on the forest floor. There is no developed access to this site, but watch for guided hikes led by TDEC’s ecologists to see this amazing flower in bloom next spring.
All of East Tennessee’s 16 species of Trillium are impacted by these threats. Ongoing land protection efforts by TennGreen Land Conservancy, TDEC, and other partners in the region are critical to their survival.
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Images courtesy of Alan Cressler