Wild Lilies for Your Garden

The Yellow Adder's Tongue is also know as the Trout Lily, or the Dog-tooth "Violet". The scientific name for this wild flower is Erythronium americanum. This lily produces pale russet yellow flowers which are sometimes tinged with a hint of purple. The gently nodding bell shaped flowers have a light, appealing fragrance reminescent of tulips, and grow to one or two inches long. The plant grows from six to twelve inches high, and sports grayish green leaves just as tall. These leaves are sometimes mottled and streaked with brown color which tends to make them look a bit like snake's skin.

This lily likes moist, open woods and thickets, or brooksides. It should fit nicely on the banks of a water garden or pond. This preference is actually the cause for one of the common names for this plant: It's called a Trout Lily because it grows wild close to brooks or streams. It flowers from March to May and does well in locations such as Florida and Mississippi.

The Yellow Clintonia, or Clintonia borealis, has small, less than one inch long, straw colored or greenish yellow flowers. It usually sports from three to six flowers at once, which nod gently on slender pendicels which can be six to fifteen inches tall. The leaves on this wild lily flower are a dark, glossy green. They're usually oval to oblong in shape, tend to grow in groups of three. This lily produces oval blue berries too.

This wild flower likes to grow in moist, rich, cool woods and thickets. It flowers from May to June, and does well from the Carolinas and Wisconsin northward.

More wild lilies