Latin name:Erythronium americanum
Bloom time: March to May (typically April in Michigan)

Trout Lily is one of the first spring ephemeral plants to signal the arrival of spring. It gets its name from the molted leaves that resemble a brook trout. Research has suggested the average age of a trout lily colony can be up to 150 years old, and potentially over 1,000 years old in undisturbed forests.

Trout Lily does not flower for the first four to seven years of its life, and in any given colony, only about 0.5% of plants will have flowers in a season. Like Trillium, it is a myrmecochorous plant — ants disperse its seeds, drawn by a fatty structure attached to each one. Trout Lily, also called Adder's Tongue, is among the wildflowers protected by Michigan state law.