By Vicki Solomon, Interpretive Naturalist

Who doesn’t enjoy seeing cheerful blooms of wildflowers as winter withdraws its chilly grasp on northeastern Ohio? Trout lily is widespread across many of our wooded parks and should be in its blooming glory for the next couple of weeks. Look on the forest floor for its fleshy upright leaves and its yellow down-hanging flowers.

Trout lily

Europeans in the 1700s named this plant “dog-toothed violet” because it resembled a purple European species by that name. It’s not a violet at all, though it does produce “dog teeth” (underground corms shaped like canine fangs that store energy so the plant can make quick growth in spring).  

Another moniker given to this plant is “fawn lily.” Some say the leaves stand up like a deer’s erect ears and others say they remind them of the spotted pattern on baby fawns. What do you think?

“Adder’s tongue” is another common name bestowed on this early wildflower. Look for the bright red or rusty brown anthers hanging down from an open blossom. Do you think they look like the red tongue of a garter snake? 

Garter snake

The American naturalist John Burroughs conferred on Erythronium americana the common name “trout lily.” It is in the lily family, growing from a bulb as all lilies do. See how the fully open flower resembles its larger summer-blooming botanical relative the Turk’s cap lily? Trout lily’s distinctive bronze-mottled leaves are reminiscent of the spots on brown brook trout. 

Turk's cap lily

Speaking of fish, it is said that Cherokee people would chew a trout lily leaf, then spit it into the river to make fish bite their baited lines. (Anglers, I don’t advise trying this; the leaves can cause reactions in some people).

I wonder what prehistoric people called this lovely yellow lily. Doubtless, they enjoyed it as we do as a herald of spring. Some colonies we admire today may be in fact the same plants that Whittlesey, Shawnee, or Delaware people observed! Colonies consisting of one genetic individual are able to survive for centuries due to Erythronium americana’s ability to spread vegetatively, not only via seed. Diminutive trout lilies in second-growth forests may be far older than the trees that tower above them. Two or three hundred-year-old stands exist in Ohio, and some in virgin woodland may be a thousand or more years old. Trout lilies and other spring wildflowers are living museum pieces of the temperate deciduous forest biome that covered eastern North America before European settlement.

Beyond its pretty adornment of woodlands, trout lily benefits its woodland ecosystem. If you encounter it on a day when air temperature is above 50 degrees, you may see the flowers in full bloom, when their petals reflex fully. That’s the time to watch for small pollinators busy on those big reddish anthers. Some of these ground-nesting bees are quite small, as are little hover flies that also visit. Both depend on early wildflowers like trout lily for pollen and nectar as food. In a few weeks, after seeds form thanks to the work of wild pollinators, ants will come for those seeds. Ants will carry seeds back to their dens in order to feed their larvae on the fatty protein-rich tidbits formed on the seed. Then the ants toss away the seeds in their “trash heaps,” thereby planting trout lily seeds beyond colony borders. Hungry chipmunks feast on trout lily’s corms and bulbs in springtime, long before trees and shrubs offer fruits, nuts, or seeds.

Pollinator on a trout lily

We all can be inspired by the little trout lily that overcomes the uncertainties of harsh spring weather to thrive and bloom, that persists over the long haul by adapting in unique ways, and lives interconnectedly helping and being helped by others in its community.

I encourage you to take a walk soon in one of the parks to look for trout lilies. In Victorian lore, yellow lilies are said to bring joy, happiness, and light-heartedness. That is my wish for you during these days. 

These parks offer trails likely to reward your search for trout lilies in the next few weeks:

Girdled Road Reservation

Hogback Ridge Park

Indian Point Park

Veterans Park