Scientific Name: Erythronium albidum
Common Name(s): Trout Lily, White Trout Lily, Adder’s Tongue, White Dog-tooth Violet

Identification:

Trout lilies produce small white flowers. Their presence indicates a healthy forest. They are in the lily family (Liliaceae) and are one of the few native lilies in our area. In NW Arkansas, trout lilies bloom in mid-March, but can bloom later in the spring depending on winter conditions. The leaves of trout lilies arise directly from the ground and are lanceolate in shape with a distinct mottled pattern. They live in colonies where one-leaved individuals are non-flowering and immature, while two-leaved individuals are mature and flower. The stems of the flowering individuals are red. Flowers are small and bell shaped with a diameter up to 1.5 inches. They are white in color sometimes with a purple strip down the middle on the outside. In other plants, petals are distinguished to entice insects to pollinate, and the sepals are a separate structure at the base of the flower which protects the bud. Trout lilies, like other members of the family Liliaceae, have tepals where these two structures are combined into one organ. Flowering plants produce fruit capsules that are oval and generally half an inch long but can reach up to one inch in length.

Similar Species:
Yellow trout lilies (E. americanum) are distinguished from E. albidum based on their yellow tepal. Yellow trout lilies have a more northern native range and occurring as far north as Maine and Nova Scotia, but they do occur here. Dwarf trout lilies (E. propullans) are much smaller and have a native range restricted to Minnesota.

Range:

White trout lilies are native to Eastern North America and part of central North America. Some range maps do not include yellow trout lilies in northwest Arkansas, but they also occur locally.

Ecology:

Trout lilies are an indicator of a healthy forest ecosystem and are found in moist forests and wooded slopes without dense underbrush. A healthy forest should be clear of dense underbrush and easily walkable. Before the prolific human settlement of the Oak-Savannah forests in this region, forests would undergo regular burns which allowed for the culling of dense underbrush species and smaller saplings. Therefore, trout lilies are a great indicator of this environment as they will not grow in dense, shaded areas.

They are also an indicator of healthy streamside ecosystems, specifically of the smaller streams which are forested tributaries of larger streams. Before the proliferation of modern industrial humans and the development of roads and concrete, water would flow slowly over the landscape. This allowed the water to slowly percolate through the soil and reduced the chances of high velocity flooding. In today’s world, water flows faster over the landscape which is the cause of streamside erosion in larger streams, such as Little Sugar. Since trout lilies thrive in small stable drainages with slow moving water, they often indicate forest and small-stream stability and health.

Trout lilies do not transplant well and should be left to thrive in the wild. The best manner of cultivation is through planting their corms which are bulb-like root balls that can be purchased from nurseries or online. They will slowly form vast colonies since the corms extend rooting structures called stolons through the soil to produce more individuals. Trout lilies can be cultivated from a seed, but this will take up to five years to produce results. They thrive in nutrient rich soil composed of decaying plant matter or humus.

Special Notes:

Here in Bella Vista, one might expect there to be trout lilies along undisturbed wooded slopes and bluffs in open forest habitat. Similarly, they may be spotted in small drainages in forests which contribute water to larger drainages basins. Generally, Bella Vista forests contain dense underbrush with trees closely packed together. The introduction of prescribed burning practices would open the understory and increase trout lily colonies in our area.