It could be tipularia discolor, cranefly orchid.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1054393}}

Hello,

You are lucky enough to have trout lilies. They take about 7 years to bloom from seed, but when they do they are stunning - tiny drooping trumptet lily-like flowers. I've only seen white in person, but I've seen yellow in books. They are actually blooming right now in Crystal Lake, IL. I've purchased a few from a reputable native nursery, but mine haven't bloomed yet. They are expensive, and sadly being poached from our forest preserves. Good luck to you.

Margie

In reading the original post again, I think you guys might be right that it is trout lily (which is the picture that kwoods posted). The trout lily leaf is more waxy feeling and you would have more of that groundcover effect than cranefly orchid.

Either plant is great, though ... both favorites!

In moist woods here in SE PA, I have often seen Erythronium so plentiful it covers the ground. These are almost all the single leaf sterile bulbs, so that blooms are far apart even with millions of the bulbs around. Still, there should be some flowers. They just opened this week here, so it may be a week to 10 days till they open there.

George

"Never seen so many it could be considered a ground cover!"

I meant Tipularia. I've seen sites with many but never that many that it "covered" the ground. Has anyone seen a population of Tipularia that dense? That would be fantastic.

We used to have a good number of tipularia and aplectrum along the creek here, but it is now a Wildlife Preserve and since they started preserving the fauna (Deer), the flora has really taken a beating. I would say that about 90% of the native wildflowers are now extinct or so rare that finding one is a really special event. These were never plentiful enough to be called common though.

George

We have that many tipularia. They are indeed effectively a groundcover at our home (even though we didn't plant them). I think the key is that they like very acidic organically rich soil.

We have Trout Lilies, which have a green leaf with maroon spots. They can be quite thick, and do cover the ground on parts of the wooded area behind our house. They are blooming now, along with some other flowering plants. The leaves tend to disappear later in the season.

I was checking in this forum because my Trout Lilies are yellow with darker maroon striping on the outside of flowers. Yesterday I was looking along the fenceline and found a bunch of white flowers that look like Trout Lilies, except I have never seen white ones. Leaves look the same, single green with maroon spots.

The difference is we usually have horses in the pasture here, but don't this spring. Horses congregate in that tree corner for shade, trample anything that grows.

Reading other posts, it sounds like Trout Lilies come in white. Is this correct? All the books, catalogs I have seen, show them and describe them as yellow.

My flower area is wooded with leaf fall piling up each year. Most of the trees are Oak, some Honeysuckle and Hickory. The field outside the woods is soil testing about 6.4 on the PH. Not really acidic. Dirt is moist most of the time since this is the lower area than field, lots of clay in the dirt.

Mine are blooming too. I love the blooms, but have to say I hate the messiness. I posted a long time ago about this very issue. In some of my beds they are taking over and just look like heck in the spring (the ones that aren't blooming that is.) I know one leaf up means it's still too young, it needs two leaves to bloom. I'm pretty sure I have both the yellow and white. They will disappear soon and all will look tidy again.