The DNR Wildlife Viewing Grants Program emphasizes species and habitats that are conservation priorities in Georgia’s State Wildlife Action Plan. The plan is a comprehensive strategy to conserve native species and the habitats they need before these animals, plants and places become more rare and costly to conserve or restore. The dimpled trout lily is one of the rare plants thriving in this region.
The signature plant at the Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve is the dimpled trout lily (Erythronium umbilicatum). This is primarily an Appalachian species ranging from North Florida to Maryland, but the population at Wolf Creek in rural Grady County, GA, between the towns of Cairo and Whigham, is one of the largest known concentrations of this unusual wildflower. A few smaller populations of trout lilies occur in Southwest Georgia and North Florida, most notably the population at Angus Gholson Nature Park 40 miles to the west in Chattahoochee, FL.
The trout lily is a spring ephemeral and is visible for only a few months, usually late December or early January to late March or early April. The leaves die back after the bloom and the plant becomes dormant through the summer and fall. The colony of trout lilies at Wolf Creek is thought to be a remnant population of what is now a more northern species. The north-facing slope, the canopy of mostly hardwoods, and the layer of clay under the soil’s surface provide optimum conditions for this large colony of plants covering more than 10 acres.
The trout lily has fleshy green leaves with purple mottling and a graceful yellow flower that sits atop a solitary stem and droops towards the ground. When the hardwoods drop their leaves and the sun reaches the forest floor, a mature plant sends up a single leaf from an underground corm (a small bulb). A couple of weeks later, the second leaf emerges surrounding the flower bud and falls away as the flower emerges. Each individual flower blooms for four or five days. The flowers close at night and open again the next day if there is sun. On very overcast days, the flowers may not open at all. Individual plants bloom at different times, so at Wolf Creek, the bloom extends for three or four weeks. At the height of the bloom, the expanse of bright yellow flowers carpeting the forest floor is a stunning sight.
Each individual flower is pollinated by flying insects and wind and produces a seed capsule at the end of a long thread. The capsule is the size of a small chickpea and contains 5 to 25 individual seeds. It is thought that ants disperse the seeds. When the plant becomes dormant at the end of the growing season, the corm allows the plant to survive the drought and heat of summer and the cold of winter. The lifespan of individual plants is not known, but they may live for decades.
The signature plant at the Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve is the dimpled trout lily (Erythronium umbilicatum). This is primarily an Appalachian species ranging from North Florida to Maryland, but the population at Wolf Creek in rural Grady County, GA, between the towns of Cairo and Whigham, is one of the largest known concentrations of this unusual wildflower. A few smaller populations of trout lilies occur in Southwest Georgia and North Florida, most notably the population at Angus Gholson Nature Park 40 miles to the west in Chattahoochee, FL.
The trout lily is a spring ephemeral and is visible for only a few months, usually late December or early January to late March or early April. The leaves die back after the bloom and the plant becomes dormant through the summer and fall. The colony of trout lilies at Wolf Creek is thought to be a remnant population of what is now a more northern species. The north-facing slope, the canopy of mostly hardwoods, and the layer of clay under the soil’s surface provide optimum conditions for this large colony of plants covering more than 10 acres.
The trout lily has fleshy green leaves with purple mottling and a graceful yellow flower that sits atop a solitary stem and droops towards the ground. When the hardwoods drop their leaves and the sun reaches the forest floor, a mature plant sends up a single leaf from an underground corm (a small bulb). A couple of weeks later, the second leaf emerges surrounding the flower bud and falls away as the flower emerges. Each individual flower blooms for four or five days. The flowers close at night and open again the next day if there is sun. On very overcast days, the flowers may not open at all. Individual plants bloom at different times, so at Wolf Creek, the bloom extends for three or four weeks. At the height of the bloom, the expanse of bright yellow flowers carpeting the forest floor is a stunning sight.
Each individual flower is pollinated by flying insects and wind and produces a seed capsule at the end of a long thread. The capsule is the size of a small chickpea and contains 5 to 25 individual seeds. It is thought that ants disperse the seeds. When the plant becomes dormant at the end of the growing season, the corm allows the plant to survive the drought and heat of summer and the cold of winter. The lifespan of individual plants is not known, but they may live for decades.