HARBINGER OF SPRING

 Text and photo by Norma A. Hubbard (June 2016)

A few years ago, my friend, Denise, and I were walking the trails of my woods. It was spring and so much of the forest floor was covered with tender, young plants. Both of us, being nature lovers, had been naming the various plants, when we came upon a bed of yellow flowers, “Oh, look at all the salmon lilies,” I said. Now you have to know Denise to be aware of how very polite she is. There are no salmon lilies, so instead of correcting me, she asked, “Are you sure?” At the time I was sure, I even added, “Yes, look at the leaves, they are speckled like fish scales.” She merely replied, “I think we called them trout lilies when I was a kid.” It was then that I realized I had mixed up my ‘fish’ flowers!

Trout lily (Erythronium americanum) goes by a few other common names, such as Adder’s tongue or Dogtooth violet, but not salmon. The Trout lily’s name is derived from its green and purplish brown dappled leaves, which have the look of brook trout. Adder’s tongue takes its name because as the new leaf shoots emerge from the ground, they look like a snake’s tongue – yuck, some of you know I don’t like snakes! And the Dogtooth violet name comes from the shape and white colour of the root bulb, however trout lilies are not violets. As members of the lily family, they share the common trait of three petals with three petallike sepals; they are nature’s perfect miniature lilies.

In spring in our woods, trout lilies cover the forest floor. As with many plants, trout lilies do not flower when young. A colony of these flowers will have lots of plants of various ages, many with only one leaf; these will not flower. Older plants will have two leaves and produce a single flower. It takes a few years before plants will produce flowers. Lilies have root systems, known as corms, which need to reach 10 to 20 centimeters below the ground to become established enough to produce flowers. Plants spread more by this root system than they do by seed since it takes a few years to produce a flower that will seed. Nonetheless, according to Canada Wildlife Federation, “[T]rout lilies have recruited the help of ants, who eat a nutritious appendage attached to each seed and leave the rest to germinate.”

Trout lilies are spring ephemeral plants; ephemeral means they have a short life cycle. These lovely yellow flowers are among the first to appear each spring, but are gone all too soon. By the time the tree canopy fills, these flowers will fade and the plants die back, yet the root system continues to grow. It is believed that some colonies are hundreds of years old. Therefore, tread lightly as you walk in the woods as our trout lilies are growing out of sight in preparation for spring.

References: Canada Wildlife Federation [online]; Gardens Eye View [online]