General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Herb/Forb
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Partial or Dappled Shade
Partial Shade to Full Shade
Water Preferences: Mesic
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 3 -40 °C (-40 °F) to -37.2 °C (-35)
Maximum recommended zone: Zone 9b
Plant Height: 4-10 inches
Plant Spread: 3 - 6 inches
Leaves: Unusual foliage color
Spring ephemeral
Other: Leaves can be cooked as a leaf vegetable.
Flowers: Showy
Flower Color: Yellow
Bloom Size: 1"-2"
Flower Time: Spring
Underground structures: Bulb
Uses: Vegetable
Will Naturalize
Propagation: Seeds: Stratify seeds: Seeds need alternating periods of warm and cold stratification to germinate
Seeds are hydrophilic
Propagation: Other methods: Stolons and runners
Offsets

Image
Common names
  • Trout Lily
  • Yellow Trout-Lily
  • Adder's-Tongue
  • American Trout-Lily
  • Dogtooth Violet
  • Yellow Adder's Tongue
  • Eastern Trout-Lily

Photo Gallery
Location: Kentucky
Date: 2021-04-09
Location: Marietta, GA Zone 7B
Date: 2022-03-06

Date: 2012-03-25
Location: Marietta, GA Zone 7B
Date: 2022-03-06
Location: Southern Maine
Location: Mt. Cuba Center, Hockessin, Delaware USA
Date: 2018-04-22
Location: Tennessee
Norris Dam State Park
Location: Eagle Bay, New York
Date: 2006-05-09
Erythronium americanum -  trout lily or  Dog-tooth Violet
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Date: 2022-04-16
Photo by robertduval14

Date: c. 1925
illustration from Walcott's 'North American Wild Flowers', 1925
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Date: 2022-04-16
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Date: 2022-04-16
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Date: 2022-04-16
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Date: 2022-04-16
Location: Fairfax, VA
Location: Fairfax, VA
Location: Southern Maine
Location: Southern Maine
Location: East Tennessee
Date: 2016-04-03
Location: McEwen TN
Photo by SongofJoy
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Date: 2022-04-16
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Date: 2022-04-16
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Date: 2022-04-16
Location: East Tennessee
Date: 2016-04-03
Photo by SongofJoy
Location: Natural Area in Northeastern Indiana
Date: 2012-03-25
Location: z5a, Smith College Botanical Garden
Date: 2012-04-19
Photo by SongofJoy
Location: McEwen TN
Date: 2017-03-28
Location: McEwen TN
Date: 2017-03-28
Location: McEwen TN
Date: 2017-03-28
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (April 2022)
Date: 2022-04-30
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (April 2022)
Date: 2022-04-30
Photo by Pinestraw

Date: May
credit: John Cameron

Credit NPS
Location: Simcoe County, Ontario
Date: April 27, 2021
Location: My Garden
Date: 2013-05-24
Photo by TheOrchidGirl
Photo by TheOrchidGirl
Photo by TheOrchidGirl
Location: z5a, Smith College Botanical Garden
Date: 2012-04-19
This plant is tagged in:
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Comments:
  • Posted by mellielong (Lutz, Florida - Zone 9b) on Apr 23, 2015 12:17 PM concerning plant:
    The book "How to Know the Wildflowers" (1922) by Mrs. William Starr Dana tells us that this plant can be found in April blooming in "one of those hollows in the wood which is watered by such a clear gurgling brook as must appeal to every country-loving heart." Each lily nods "guarded by a pair of mottled, erect, sentinel-like leaves."

    The book gives two common names for this plant: Yellow Adder's Tongue and Dog's Tooth Violet. However, the author finds these highly unsatisfactory. Why call a lily a violet? Why indeed. She also asks if the markings of the leaves resemble the skin of an adder, why name it after its tongue? Mr. Burroughs, she says, has proposed two better names. The first, "Fawn Lily" because a fawn is also mottled and because the leaves stand up in a similar fashion to the alert, startled look of a fawn's ears. The second, "Trout Lily" because of its speckled foliage and flowering season has "a spring-like flavor not without charm." Let's be glad that nearly a century later the author got her wish! She also mentions the early settlers of Pennsylvania called the flower "Yellow Snowdrop".
Plant Events from our members
aspenhill On April 21, 2017 Obtained plant
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