Trout-lily
StarErythronium americanum
Synonyms: Erythronium flavum
Western Herbalism Properties
Traditional Uses
Erythronium americanum has documented use among eastern North American indigenous peoples; the NAEB database records six uses, principally by the Cherokee and Iroquois. The Cherokee employed warmed, crushed leaves as a poultice on wounds that would not heal, used an infusion of the root as a febrifuge for fever, and gave a compound infusion as a stimulant for fainting (Hamel and Chiltoskey, 1975). The Iroquois used the raw plants (except the roots) as a folk contraceptive taken by young women, and applied a poultice of smashed roots to swellings and to draw out splinters (Herrick, 1977). The plant was also recorded as an emetic and emollient in nineteenth-century North American folk-Eclectic practice (Felter and Lloyd, 1898).
Gallery
Botanical Description
Erythronium americanum, the trout-lily, yellow dogtooth violet, or yellow adder's-tongue, is a small perennial spring ephemeral herb in the family Liliaceae native to eastern North American deciduous forests, from Ontario and Nova Scotia south to Georgia and Alabama. The plant arises from a deep, slender, tunicate corm (bulb) that descends gradually into the soil over many years; in mature flowering plants the bulb produces a pair of basal leaves and a single flowering scape, while juvenile non-flowering plants bear only a single leaf and may persist as colonial leaf-only mats for many years. The leaves are elliptic-lanceolate, 10-20 cm long, conspicuously mottled with brownish-purple blotches on a green ground (the markings resembling the speckled flanks of a brook trout and giving the common name). The solitary nodding flower is borne on a leafless scape 10-25 cm tall and consists of six recurved bright yellow tepals 2-3 cm long, often tinged with brownish-purple on the outside, surrounding six stamens with brown or yellow anthers and a slender style. The plant flowers in early spring before canopy closure and then dies back to the bulb by midsummer. The fruit is a small three-angled capsule.
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications.
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