“Trout Lily, Vernal Pollinator Sustenance”

Also called Dog Tooth Violets, these lovely spring ephemerals (Erythronium albidum and americanum) are just what you need to see after a long, dreary winter. White Trout Lilies are spreaders. Their underground roots will bud off new plants and in only a few seasons, a couple plants can spread into many. Trout Lilies offer pollinators a much-needed meal during a time when little else is available. What is even more impressive is the impact that Trout Lilies can have on their neighbors. Known as the vernal dam hypothesis, research shows that spring wildflowers like Trout Lily actually serve as nutrient pools for the entire forest. Without plants like Trout Lily, spring rains would saturate the soil, where it would then run off into local waterways, taking with it valuable nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. Because Trout Lilies grow well at low soil temperatures, they actually take up nutrients that would otherwise be lost during this time. When the warmer summer weather hits and the leaves die back, they then release a lot of nutrients back into soil where vigorously growing plants are ready to take it up. By choosing Trout Lilies for your landscape you are giving back to the surrounding plant communities more than you may realize!” (Source: Prairie Moon Nursery)

Flower Staggering: To prevent pollinators from stripping all the pollen at once, a trout lily’s anthers open in two separate sets over two days, encouraging insects to visit other flowers and cross-pollinate.

Low Seed Success: Even after successful pollination, only about 10% of pollinated flowers will successfully produce seeds.

• Specialist Pollinators: The Trout Lily Miner Bee (Andrena erythronii) is an oligolectic species whose emergence is perfectly timed with the blooming of the plant, serving as its most efficient pollen transporter.
• Weather Dependent: Like many spring ephemerals, trout lily blossoms close on overcast days and at night to protect their pollen from rain and cold.
• • Ant Transport: Ants (such as Aphaenogaster rudis) are attracted to the fatty elaiosome (a lipid-rich, fleshy attachment) and will carry the seed deep into their underground nests.
  • Compost Piles: Once the ants eat the attachment, they discard the seed into their nutrient-rich underground “compost pile,” giving the tiny new plant an ideal spot to germinate
    Seed Dispersal
    Because sexual reproduction is difficult and slow (it takes up to 7 years for a seedling to produce its first flower), trout lilies rely on a unique dispersal method after successful pollination: