''Erythronium'', the fawn lily, trout lily, dog's-tooth violet or adder's tongue, is a genus of

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

n and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n plants in the lily family, most closely related to

tulip Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

s. The name Erythronium derives from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

() "red" in Greek, referring to the red flowers of ''E. dens-canis''. Of all the established species, most live in North America; only six species are found in Europe and Asia.

Species

''Erythronium'' includes about 20–30

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of hardy spring-flowering

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

plants Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...

with long, tooth-like

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

s. Slender stems carry pendent

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s with recurved

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s in shades of cream, yellow, pink and mauve. Species are

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to forests and meadows in

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

Formerly included

Two species names were coined using the name ''Erythronium'' but have since been reclassified to other taxa. * ''Erythronium carolinianum'', now called ''

Uvularia perfoliata ''Uvularia perfoliata'', the perfoliate bellwort, is a perennial forb indigenous (ecology), native to the eastern United States and Canada, which produces pale yellow flowers in spring. Description The smooth slender stem of ''Uvularia perfoli ...

'' * ''Erythronium hyacinthoides'', now called ''

Drimia indica ''Drimia indica'' is a species of flowering plant found from South Asia to South Africa. Description ''Drimia indica'' is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant which grows from bulbs. It has long leaves, typically 15–30 cm long by 1� ...

Cultivation and uses

Erythroniums are widely grown as

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

s, with numerous hybrids and

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

s having been selected for garden use. Popular cultivars include ''Erythronium'' 'Pagoda', ''E.'' 'Sundisc', ''E.'' 'Joanna', ''E.'' 'Kondo', ''E.'' 'Citronella', ''E. californicum'' 'White Beauty', and ''E.'' 'Rosalind'. Propagation is best by seed in autumn or by division of bulbs, depending on species. Some species propagate vegetatively. The plant is also great as a ground cover, as it will spread over several years. The following

s, of mixed ancestry, have won the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

: *'Apple Blossom' (white with yellow centre) *'Janice' (pink) *'Joanna' (cream/pale yellow throat) *'Pagoda' (cream yellow) *'Sundisc' (yellow) *'Wildside Seedling' (white/yellow) The

is edible as a

root vegetable Root vegetables are underground plant parts eaten by humans as food. Although botany distinguishes true roots (such as taproots and tuberous roots) from non-roots (such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers, although some contain both hypocotyl a ...

, cooked or dried, and can be ground into

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

. The leaves can also be cooked as a

leaf vegetable Leaf vegetables, also called leafy greens, pot herbs, vegetable greens, or simply greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots. Leaf vegetables eaten raw in a salad can be called salad gre ...

. In

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, ''Erythronium japonicum'' is called ''

katakuri ''Erythronium japonicum'', known as Asian fawn lily, Oriental fawn lily, Japanese fawn lily is a pink-flowered species trout lily, belonging to the Lily family and native to Japan, Korea, the Russian Far East (Sakhalin Island, Kuril Islands) an ...

'', and the bulb is processed to produce

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...

, which is used for food and other purposes.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q143756 Liliaceae genera Root vegetables

Species

Formerly included

Cultivation and uses

See also

References

Bibliography