Erythronium americanum ssp. americanum

Native

Moist. Woods.

April to May

Yellow, sometimes with spots near the base

4″ to 8″

This is a 4″ to 8″ tall, erect, perennial that rises from a short, vertical, thickened, underground stem (corm). It is usually found in large colonies.

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 9″ long, lance-shaped, untoothed, fleshy, green, 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 3 petals and 3 identical-looking sepals, collectively called tepals. The tepals are ⅔″ to 2″ long, lance-shaped, and yellow. They may be spotted toward the base. They flare outward, extending nearly to the horizontal, eventually curving backward. The anthers are up to ½″ long and red, becoming yellow when covered with pollen.

The fruit is an egg-shaped, 3-celled capsule, ⅜″ to ⅔″ wide. It is held off the ground horizontally at maturity. At the summit it is squared off or convex or ends abruptly in a small, slender point.

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 flower is white. The tepals are about ½″ long.

White trout lily (Erythronium albidum) has white flowers. The fruit is held erect.

This is a 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.