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Trout Lily
Erythronium umbilicatum
30.8904, -84.2914
Field Notes
Description:
Small rare yellow wild flower lily with two leaves, and six petals that curl up to reveal the inner parts. The lily starts with one leaf and takes seven years to mature until finally the second leaf grows, reaches a mature age to bloom. Timing is key as they only bloom for about two weeks per year and then they're gone. They are also quite small. If you're looking for a typical lily, you may easily walk right by and miss these beauties.
Habitat:
These rare trout lilies grow in large patches (acres) in moist, cool, rich soil.
Notes:
Spotted at Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve near Cairo, GA. The trout lily is an endangered species in Florida, and rarely seen in South Georgia.
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.
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