White White Trout Lily is a species of spring ephemeral flower native to North America and dwelling in woodland habitats. White White Trout Lily forms large colonies in moist woodlands and blooms in the early spring. White White Trout Lily blooms in early spring before the trees growing above it develop leaves, this allows it to have unobstructed access to sunlight and also allows it to grow when soil nutrient levels are high. The common name "white trout lily lily" refers to the appearance of its grey to green leaves mottled with brown or grey, which allegedly resemble the colouring of brook white trout lily. The genus name erythros comes from the greek word for "red", a reference to the flower colour of several European species.

There is currently no commercial application for white trout lily.

Within the realm of rational and holistic medicine, the bulb and the fresh leaves of white white trout lily lily have been used in Native American medicine. White White Trout Lily, when harvested fresh is strongly emetic and are not used internally. The fresh leaves are also antiscrofulatic and emollient and are used as an infusion or stimulating poultice applied to swellings, tumours and scrofulous ulcers. The juice from crushed leaves has been applied to wounds that are not healing. A poultice of the crushed bulbs has been applied to swellings and to help remove splinters. The raw plant, excluding the roots, has been used by native North American young girls to prevent conception.

Please note that MIROFOSS does not suggest in any way that plants should be used in place of proper medical and psychological care. This information is provided here as a reference only.

The bulbs of White white trout lily lily can be consumed raw, or cooked, and have a crisp chewy and very pleasant taste. The leaves of the white trout lily lily plant, raw or cooked, can be added to salads. The flowers and flower buds of white trout lily lily are considered to be edible.

White White Trout Lily flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs). Suitable for: light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland). It prefers moist soil.

Soil Conditions
Soil Moisture
Sunlight
Notes:

White Trout Lily plants do not flower for the first four to seven years of its life. While the plant it too young to flower it will grow one leaf and once it has reached maturity may grow two paired leaves and a flower stalk. In any given white trout lily lily colony 99% plants will be non-flowering and only have one leaf and 0.5% will have paired leaves and flowers. Each spring the plant will grow either a single or pair of 8cm to 23cm long elliptic to linear leaves, the leaves may be mottled with grey to purple and have entire leaf margins. Yellow white trout lily lily produces an erect flower stalk with nodding one-inch, bisexual yellow flowers with six tepals, the tepals are composed of three petals and three petal-like sepals which are both re-curved upward. The fruit is a capsule 12mm to 15mm long. White Trout Lily flowers close at night. White Trout Lily grows from a corm, or underground bulb 15mm to 28mm long and shaped like an oval. The corm is often located in the upper 11cm of soil although it may be as deep as 30cm. The bulbs of the white trout lily lily plant are buried very deeply compared to other lily family plants. In North America white trout lily lily does not reproduce very effectively via sexual reproduction with only 10% of pollinated flowers developing seeds. In North America, white trout lily lilies grow in colonies that may be up to 300 years old. The individuals within a colony will often reproduce asexually via a "dropper" or from small corms budding off of the main corm. A dropper is a tubular fleshy stem that grows out from a parent corm, up toward the surface and then penetrates deep into the soil where another corm is formed from the tip of the dropper. The stem connecting the daughter and parent corm then dies. White Trout Lily is a myrmecochorous plant, meaning ants help to disperse the seeds and reduce predation of the seeds. To make the seeds more appealing to ants they have an elaiosome which is a structure which attracts the ants.

Plant Height	10cm to 18cm
Habitat	Rich woodlands
Leaves	Elliptic to Linear
Leaf Margin	Entire
Leaf Venation	Parallel
Stems	Smooth Stems
Flowering Season	March to June
Flower Type	Radially Symmetrical
Flower Colour	White
Pollination	Bees, Insects
Flower Gender	Flowers are hermaphrodite and the plants are self-fertile
Fruit	Hard kidney shaped seeds
USDA Zone	4B (-28°C to -31°C) cold weather limit

The following health hazards should be noted when handling or choosing a location to plant white trout lily lily:

Note Although no records of toxicity have been seen for this species, the following notes have been seen for another member of this genus and so some caution is advised. Skin contact with the bulbs has been known to cause dermatitis in sensitive people.

-Click here- or on the thumbnail image to see an artist rendering, from The United States Department of Agriculture, of white trout lily lily. (This image will open in a new browser tab)

White Trout Lily can be referenced in certain current and historical texts under one other name:

White Fawnlily

White Trout Lily can be translated into the following select languages:

Arabic	سمك السلمون المرقط الزنبق	Bulgarian	Пъстърва Лили	Chinese (Sim)	鳟鱼百合
Croatian		Czech		Danish
Dutch	Lelie van de forel	Esperanto		Estonian
Finnish		French		German
Greek		Hebrew	טראוט לילי	Hungarian
Italian		Japanese	トラウトリリー	Korean	송어 릴리
Punjabi		Lithuanian	upėtakis Lelija	Norwegian
Persian	ماهی قزل آلا لیلی	Polish		Portuguese
Romanian		Russian		Slovak
Spanish	lirio de trucha	Swedish		Tagalog
Turkish	bahar güzelliği	Ukrainian		Vietnamese

The information provided in this conservation assessment has been provided by the Natureserve Database in conjunction with various federal, provincial, state, county, district, regional, and municipal governments as well as public and private conservation authorities. Information in this section is accurate from the last time this article was updated.
	White Trout Lily is considered to be a vulnerable native species in North America.

The MIROFOSS database offers free printable garden tags for personal and non-profit use. These tags can be used to properly identify plant samples in a garden. Click on the tags shown on the the screen or -click here- to download a full size jpeg image for a white trout lily lily identification tag; which can be printed on paper or used with a plastic laser printer.

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Description	Bernhardt, Peter (2003). Wily violets & underground orchids : revelations of a botanist (University of Chicago Press ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226043661
Description	Muller, Robert (1978). "THE PHENOLOGY, GROWTH AND ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS OF ER YTHRONIUM AMERICANUM IN THE NORTHERN HARDWOOD FOREST". Ecological monographs (48): 1–20.
Commercial Uses	Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
Distribution	Flora of North America Editorial Committee. 2002a. Flora of North America North of Mexico. Vol. 26. Magnoliophyta: Liliidae: Liliales and Orchidales. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xxvi + 723 pp.
Biology	Dickinson, T.; Metsger, D.; Bull, J.; & Dickinson, R. (2004) ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario. Toronto:Royal Ontario Museum,
Image Rendering	USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA NRCS. Wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Environment	National Audubon Society. Field Guide To Wildflowers (Eastern Region): Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40232-2
Physical Identification	National Audubon Society. Field Guide To Wildflowers (Eastern Region): Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40232-2
December 05, 2017	The last time this page was updated
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