The wildflowers are finally starting to emerge from the long winter. And yesterday I saw the White Trout Lily which I had never spotted in the area before, although the Yellow Trout Lily with similar leaves and flower structure with a yellow blossom are quite common. So it was a bit of a surprise to see the white variety instead.

The White Trout Lily is also known as White Dog’s-tooth Violet, Serpent’s Tongue, Trout Lily, Deer Tongue, White Fawn Lily and Yellow Snowdrop. Christian mythology says the lily sprang from the tears of Eve when she found motherhood was near.

Immature plants produce a single leaf and fail to flower, while mature plants that bloom produce a pair of leaves. And I was surprised to see many blooming when my patches of the Yellow Trout Lily, or Adder’s Tongue, are mostly immature plants.

Certain groups of American Indians used it for its emetic and contraceptive properties. The Onondaga women used the leaves as a temporary birth control method in the spring, to avoid giving birth in the most frigid part of winter.

White Trout Lily