Written by: Rebecca Bowen, DCNR

John Burrows, American naturalist, wrote about the trout lily in 1904, “In my spring rambles I have sometimes come upon a solitary specimen of this yellow lily growing beside a mossy stone where the sunshine fell upon it, and thought it one of the most beautiful of our wildflowers.”

The trout lily is a favorite spring ephemeral. A member of the lily family, they grow from bulbs and can reproduce vegetatively by forming “droppers” or offshoots, forming dense colonies. These colonies may cover the forest floor with mottled, green, fleshy, oval leaves, scattered with drooping or nodding yellow or white flowers. The majority of plants in colonies are first-year, non-flowering bearing only one leaf. Two trout lily species are found in Pennsylvania, the yellow (Erythronium americanum) and the white trout lily (E. albidum).

Yellow and White Trout Lilies

The yellow or American trout lily is very common throughout the eastern half of North America, from southern Canada through most of the east coast. It becomes less common towards the southern and western edges of its range. It grows in moist bottomland or slope forests, especially over calcareous rocks. The flowers are yellow, sometimes tinged with purple or brown below, with petals strongly curved back with age showing yellow or brown anthers. It blooms in February through April or May.

Yellow trout lily bloom (top) and patch with other spring ephemerals next to a brook (bottom), Jason Ryndock

The white trout lily blooms March through May and has a similar distribution to the yellow species except it is more common in central states than its yellow relative. It grows in rich, mesic forests, or bottomlands, especially over calcareous substrates or in very nutrient-rich alluvial soils. The graceful flower is white, tinged with pink, blue or lavender below, recurved, with yellow anthers. White trout lily is classified as Pennsylvania Rare. There are 59 populations known in Pennsylvania, 28 of which are considered to have good viability.

White and yellow trout lilies are two of Pennsylvania’s early spring ephemerals that brighten the forests this time of year. Be sure to enjoy them this spring. Just look for swaths of dappled green leaves along a creek or bottomland.

White trout lily with new bloom (top) and older bloom (bottom) showing the recurved petals, Jason Ryndock