Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

YELLOW FAWN LILY

File Size: 78 KB

Erythronium rostratum W. Wolf

Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri

Perennial

Height: 1.2 to 4 inches

Family: Liliaceae - Lily Family

Flowering Period: March, April

Also Called:

Yellow trout lily, yellow dog's-tooth violet.

Stems:

Stemless; flowering stalk arises from corm.

Leaves:

Single leaf in non-flowering plants, pair of leaves in flowering form; leaves broadly lanceolate to elliptic, 2 to 8 inches long, 1 to 2.8 inches wide, glabrous, flat to somewhat folded longitudinally; margins entire; tapered at both ends; tip pointed; base sheathing flowering stalk.

Inflorescences:

Solitary flower, terminal on stalk, erect at flowering.

Flowers:

Perianth bell-shaped, 3/5 to 2 inches long; segments 6, spreading at flowering, similar, lanceolate, yellow, outer surface sometimes orange or reddish-purple; inner 3 segments with triangular appendages near base; stamens 6, 1/2 to 2/3 length of perianth; filaments and anthers yellow; stigma 1, 3-lobed.

Fruits:

Capsule, ellipsoid, 3/5 to 1 inch long excluding beak, held erect at maturity, few to many seeded.

Habitat:

Moist deciduous woods, stream banks, bottomlands, lower wooded slopes.

Distribution:

Cherokee County, Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Yellow fawn lily is frequently found in large colonies. The majority of the plants do not flower. The common names "fawn" and "trout" allude to the mottled leaves. Linnaeus named the European species used to establish the genus Erythronium dens-canis or "dog's-tooth" because of the shape of the corm. In North American Erythronium species, the corm does not resemble a dog's tooth, but the name has remained. Early English writers often called wildflowers "violets" and that name became associated with this genus even though it is in the lily family.

Yellow fawn lily leaves