Erythronium albidum

Native

Moist. Woods, forests.

Apri to May

White or bluish-white

4″ to 8″

This is a 4″ to 8″ tall, erect, perennial forb rising from a short, vertical, thickened, underground stem (corm). It is usually found in large colonies. Less than 1% of the plants in a colony will flower in any given year.

Most plants are one-leaved and nonflowering. Flowering plants have two leaves. The leaves appear to originate at the base, but they actually originate below ground, about halfway up the underground stem. They are arranged in pairs but are not exactly opposite. They are 3″to 8½″ long, lance-shaped, untoothed, fleshy, green, flat, mottled or spotted with silver, and covered with a whitish, waxy coating.

The inflorescence is a solitary flower hanging downward at the end of a stout, nodding stem. The stem is 4″ to 6″ tall, hairless and leafless.

The flower has is nickle-size or larger. It has 3 petals and 3 identical-looking sepals, collectively called tepals. The tepals are 1″ to 2″ long, lance-shaped, white or bluish-white, and yellow at the base on the inside. They flare outward, extending nearly to the horizontal, eventually curving backward. The anthers are yellow.

The fruit is an oblong to egg-shaped, 3-celled capsule, ⅜″ to ¾″ wide. It is held erect at maturity.

Minnesota dwarf trout lily (Erythronium propullans) is a rare, much smaller plant, 1½″ to 4″ in height. The leaves are 1½″ to 5″ long. The tepals are about ½″ long. Almost all of the plants in a colony will flower each year.

Yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum ssp. americanum) has yellow flowers. The fruit is held off the ground horizontally.

This is a true spring ephemeral. All of the parts of the plant that are above ground will have disappeared by the time the forest canopy has developed in June.