vladimirmorozov
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
We all have signs that tell us spring is here. For some, it is the red-winged blackbird calling or the sweet smell of the thawing earth. The sight of trout lilies poking through last autumn’s leaves is surely a sign for others.
The name “Trout lily” is derived from the resemblance of its mottled leaves to the colouring on brook trout.
Native to Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Trout Lily grows in huge colonies that can completely cover a forest floor. The colonies can be hundreds of years old and takes a long time to grow to such a size. Its bulbs are sterile up to about the seventh year and then it produces only one leaf and no flowers. When they mature one plant will grow two leaves and one, beautiful yellow flower. The colony spreads mostly by runners and less importantly by seed. Trout lilies have a symbiotic relationship with ants known as myrmecochory. This means that they exchange a lipid-rich appendage on their seeds in return for an ant seed dispersal that spreads the colony and protects the seeds from predation. This plant is a beautiful spring ephemeral meaning it is short-lived in the spring only.
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
We all have signs that tell us spring is here. For some, it is the red-winged blackbird calling or the sweet smell of the thawing earth. The sight of trout lilies poking through last autumn’s leaves is surely a sign for others.
The name “Trout lily” is derived from the resemblance of its mottled leaves to the colouring on brook trout.
Native to Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Trout Lily grows in huge colonies that can completely cover a forest floor. The colonies can be hundreds of years old and takes a long time to grow to such a size. Its bulbs are sterile up to about the seventh year and then it produces only one leaf and no flowers. When they mature one plant will grow two leaves and one, beautiful yellow flower. The colony spreads mostly by runners and less importantly by seed. Trout lilies have a symbiotic relationship with ants known as myrmecochory. This means that they exchange a lipid-rich appendage on their seeds in return for an ant seed dispersal that spreads the colony and protects the seeds from predation. This plant is a beautiful spring ephemeral meaning it is short-lived in the spring only.