50 trout lily ,Erythronium americanum

trout lily (Erythronium americanum) Hi you are buying 50 trout lily corns,Yellow trout-lily, Erythronium americanum, a Paul Revere of spring, is a signature member of that band of ephemerals of the forest floor that march through their life cycles and disappear for another year almost before you have time to notice them. It is one of the earliest to send up its leaves- broad, yellowish to dark green, pointed tongues dappled with brownish maroon spots and flowers soon after. Some would say that these leaves, which suddenly arch above the dried leaf litter like a serpent's tongue and virtually pant for sunshine, are the basis for one of the plant's well-known common names, "adder's-tongue." Personally, I suspect it was the extruding stamens of the flower that, to some name-coiner long ago, conjured up the darting tongue of a snake poised to strike.

The trout-lily has more vernacular aliases than a scam artist, bespeaking its widespread occurrence and popularity as a wildflower. Each features some prominent characteristic of the plant. Most apt are "trout-lily" and "fawn-lily," said to have been coined by naturalist John Burroughs to replace the inappropriate name "dogtooth-violet." Indeed, the plant is a lily by affinity, and its nodding 1-2-inch flowers that bloom a mere 5-10 inches above the ground are shaped like miniature lilies. Why "trout"? Maybe because the flowers bloom at the beginning of trout season, maybe because the mottled leaves suggest the speckled sides of a brook or brown trout. Why "fawn"? The up- thrusting, mottled leaves suggest the fawn's spots, and to some the two basal leaves that flank the solitary flower on its naked, 4-6-inch scape also mimic the fawn's erect ears.