This beautiful perennial is one of our earliest spring wildflowers and sometimes occurs in large colonies. Often, the flowers are so small as to be hidden beneath leaves or are too pale to be noticed easily, but the mottled leaves are a harbinger of the plant's identity. This native plant is found from New Brunswick to Florida and west to Ontario and Arkansas. In rich, moist woods a tiny lily only 6-8 inches tall can be found in the flood plain of the Cacapon River. The plant is named for the mottled leaves, which resemble the mottled markings of  brook trout. Cherokee Indians regarded the flowering season of this lily as the time to fish for trout. Another common name for this plant is "Dogtooth Violet", which refers to the shape of the white bulb of the plant. It is a lily however and not a violet, and is very similar to the white trout lily, E. albidum. Other common names are "Adder's Tongue" and "Fawn Lily".

Recent studies have indicated that trout lilies play an important role in forest ecology by capturing soil nutrients from leaf decay in the early spring before tree roots have become active. Later as the foliage decays, the nutrients are returned to the trees.

The Trout Lily is pollinated by ants. When a seed is planted, it will take up to seven years to make a mature plant. Only mature plants having two leaves will flower and the flower is at the nodding top of a leafless stem called a 'scape'. The lily is yellow, with three sepals and three petals. In the picture of the rear view, you can see the difference between the sepals and petals. The sepals are yellow on the inside and purplish brown on the back. The petals are entirely yellow. The lily opens in the morning and closes at night. During a bright day, the petals and sepals open so far that they are all curved backwards. There are two whorls of 6 stamens in each flower.

The plant grows from a deep rootstock or corm (the dogtooth) which is 3-5 inches underground.  It often spreads from shoots from a corm, thus creating colonies.

There is a fairly large patch of Trout Lilies growing in my yard in largent with only a few mature, blooming adults - the rest are single-leaved "juveniles". Trout Lilies are one of the dozen or so "spring ephemerals", which are spring wildflowers that appear very early in the year, then bloom and fade away before summer. A similar flower is the "spring beauty", and in fact the trout lily appears and vanishes at about the same time as those little pink jewels. Each flower lasts a couple of weeks.

The whole Trout Lily plant  can be used as fresh salad additive, the flowers are supposed to be tasty, or it can be cooked as a pot herb. The Trout Lily is used in alternative medicine as a contraceptive, diuretic, emetic, emollient, to reduce fever, and as a stimulant. Plant compounds include alph-methylene-butyrolactone, known for anti-mutagenic activity. The chemical prevents cell mutation and may some day prove to be a valuable weapon in fighting cancer. The leaves and bulb are crushed and used to dress wounds and reduce swellings and for skin problems. A medicinal tea made from the root and leaf is said to reduce fever and fainting,. The tea is also taken for ulcers, tumors and swollen glands.

These pictures were taken by my friend Alana Sucke, a Wildlife Biology Master's student at Frostburg State University:

Front view of the flower
Rear view showing sepals and petals