Comments

White Trout Lily usually blooms a little earlier than other spring wildflowers in woodlands; this blooming period is short, and immature plants that don't bloom always outnumber mature plants. Both the flowers and foliage are attractive (especially if the latter is mottled). The other Trout Lilies in Illinois are less common; they include Erythronium americanum (Yellow Trout Lily) and Erythronium mesochoreum (Prairie Trout Lily). Yellow Trout Lily has yellow flowers and the lobes of its stigmas are united, rather than spreading. Prairie Trout Lily resembles a White Trout Lily with unmottled foliage. However, it produces a larger seed capsule (about 1' long) that nods downward from its stalk, sometimes touching the ground. White Trout Lily has a smaller seed capsule (about ¾' long) that remains more or less erect on its stalk. The flowers of Prairie Trout Lily are light blue-violet more often than those of White Trout Lily, and its basal leaves tend to be less broad and more strongly folded upward along their mid-veins.