California Trout Lily

Here again we stretch the meaning of native plant.  There is a New York native Trout Lily with leaves very similar to these but yellow flowers.  These pictured here also carry the name Trout Lily but the flowers are wildly different.  There is nothing shy or coy about these California natives.  The petals are thrust way back clearly placing the reproductive parts in the foreground.  Making seeds to insure the next generation is the functional reason these flowers exist.

They reproduce so quickly that transplants were pulled from this ground just recently.  Those moved plants also have open flowers today.  Despite a poorly timed move, we still see five of five plants strongly growing in their new home.

Our early weeding has unearthed these bulbs frequently.  We were unsure of just what plant would grow from them.  It turns out that the locally native Trout Lily freely reproduces from seeds simply dropped on the surface of the ground by last season's flowers.  This bulb's work has barely begun since a flower producing bulb must be several inches below the surface.

Thickly self planted, these Trout lilies are crowded together like weeds.  Flowers will likely be sparse here this year since these young plants have yet to produce deep set bulbs.  Shallowly placed plants with but a single leaf do not flower.  Deeper set bulbs send up two leaves one of which is tightly wrapped around the bud.  We will look daily searching for yellow buds.

Plants continue to teach us.  Round lobed hepatica commonly presents violet colored blossoms.  This transplant has finally settled in and this year gave us a nice set of white colored blossoms.  Its nearby neighbor sent up the more common violet colored flowers.

Becky just returned from her lawn tractor ride down to the developing shade garden.  She reported seeing three Trilliums pushing above the ground.  One was reported to have a stem thicker than her index finger.  With rain in the forecast for the next several days, we should soon see above ground appearances by several more of our native treasures.  It is truly helpful to have something quietly alive promising great beauty for us to focus on.