Yellow Trout-lily, Adder's Tongue, Yellow Dogtooth Violet, Erythronium americanum Ker Gawl., Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Yellow Trout-lily	Erythronium americanum Ker Gawl.	Lily (Lilaceae)	Woodland	Spring
Other names and notes	(Dogtooth Violet, Adder's Tongue). An ephemeral of the early spring woods, the leaves (basal only) are usually mottled with brown. The yellow 6-parted flowers, 1-1/2" long, with petal-like tepals flaring backwards, are nodding on short 4 to 8 inch stems and appear before the tree canopy leafs out. Growing from rhizomes, they form dense groupings. Eloise Butler's thoughts on this plant are given below.

Notes: Eloise Butler's records show that she obtained plants of this species on May 19, 1909 from Gillett's Nursery in Southwick, Mass. and again on June 4, 1909 from Hawkins, WI. On April 13, 1912 she got plants from Minnehaha Park. It has been present in the Garden ever since. The Yellow Trout-lily is native to Minnesota only in counties that border the rivers on the eastern edge of the state, but uncommon. Its continental range does not extend westward of the Mississippi River system. In neighboring Iowa it is on the "Threatened Species" List.

Eloise Butler wrote: "With the advance of May, Mother Nature’s spinning wheels whir faster and faster, and the earth-carpet - the most lovely product of her looms - is woven with intricate designs of flowers in bewildering profusion. But from them all we single out the dogtooth violet or adder’s tongue (now called Trout Lily) for special admiration. The latter name, due to the tongue-shaped, brown-bloched leaf, is more appropriate, for the plant is a species of lily and of no kin to a violet. It has two shining leaves which spring from a deeply buried bulb. The yellow flowered adder’s tongue (Yellow Trout Lily) is common in the Eastern states. A smaller species (Minnesota Dwarf Trout Lily, Erythronium propullans A, Gray) with a rose colored flower is also found in Minnesota. This genus flowers best in alluvial soil." (Published in the Sunday Minneapolis Tribune, May 7, 1911.)

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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