TROUT LILY (Erythronium Americanum)

River-Lab 5 Guide Manual

TROUT LILY (Erythronium americanum)

Also known as fawn lily and dogtooth violet.

The trout lily is a small plant (49 inches high) with a large role in helping other plants in a basin system. Trout lilies provide important nutrients for other plants. They also help hold down the natural mulch that gives floodplains and woodland floors nutrients for plant growth. Mulch anchored by trout lilies also enables more runoff to be absorbed, which reduces erosion of soil and plants on the floodplain and along streambanks.

The trout lily’s major contribution of nutrient enrichment is the result of its brief, early spring life cycle. A trout lily produces two flat, fleshy, spotted leaves (3–5 inches long) in the early spring. These leaves can hold a lot of water, dissolved minerals, and nitrates, thus storing important nutrients that might otherwise be washed away by early spring snowmelt and rains. The trout lily has a fairly early, short life cycle (about two weeks). The plants grow, flower, and then die. As the trout lily dies it releases it stored nutrientsat a time when many other plants enter their active growing

season and are in special need of nitrogen.

This wildflower is a member of the lily family. Its brown-splotched leaves somewhat resemble the speckled skin of a brook trout or the spotted coat of a fawn. Also, trout lilies appear at about the time of the trout season, when the fish are jumping for insects. Many wildflower books list it as a “Dogtooth Violet.” This name is misleading, because it is not a member of the violet family.

Trout lilies often grow in large patches covering moist areas on floodplains or woodland floors or along the shady edges of woods. These patches may jointly hold mulch over a large total area, significantly increasing absorption of runoff from spring rains. This effect helps protect river habitats and shorelines from erosion and protects small, gilled aquatic animals from being suffocated by silt eroded into the water.

River-Lab 5 Guide Manual

TROUT LILY, cont’d.

When seven to ten years old, a trout lily produces a single lily-shaped yellow flower which nods, or bends gracefully downward from the top of its thin green stem. The inside of the six petals are a bright yellow with tiny dark brown spots. On sunny days the flower’s petals curl back, exposing the reproductive parts—three stigmas and six stamens with golden-brown pollen. At night or on dark days, the petals hang down, covering the reproductive parts. If fertilized, a trout lily produces a tiny bulb-like seed which will bend the flower stem to the ground and start the growth of a new contributor to the health of the basin system.