Plant is an upright, perennial from a rhizome. Preferred habitat is moist wooded slopes and rich woods. Distribution is throughout the Coastal Plain except directly at seashore.

The leaf of this trillium is its most striking feature; up to six inches long and in three mottled shades of green; unstalked; egg-shaped. This is a low-to-the-ground plant, rarely more than 10 inches tall and the leaf often droops.

The deep maroon colored flower petals are long and narrow; overlapping so to appear as though the flower has not fully opened, thus easily confused with a related plant, T. cuneatum. Flowering occurs in the spring.

Fruit is a berry.