Trilliums are my favorite. As some of the earliest blooming flowers here in the mountains, I watch as they pop up alongside the trout lily and hobblebush. Every year, their presence welcomes spring to “Old Jackson Road”, the section of the Appalachian Trail just outside my office in Pinkham Notch, NH. Did you know that a flowering trillium represents a plant at least 5-10 years old? That means the plant most people notice because of its flower goes unseen by many for years when just its leafy greens are showing. But, while not as flashy as its flower, these leafy greens are essential to the trillium. The leaves are the food generating source for the plant, storing excess carbon they acquire in below ground rhizomes for future leaf growth. As early spring arrivals, they do most of their work in the narrow window between emerging and when the overhead canopy fills in. While working hard during this short window, these fragile plants must also survive deer browsing and human disturbance to return in future seasons. We have noticed trying to keep a monitoring plot with blooming trillium is difficult, maybe because of deer browsing or just bad luck.

Luckily, they make great candidates for iNaturalist monitoring of spring flowering. As some of the first up in the spring, their flowers do make the plant easy to identify. And, as iNaturalist observers with a catch as catch can approach, we have been successfully capturing trillium blooms up and down the Appalachian Trail. Getting more local knowledge through the iNaturalist community is also helpful. Mostly, we have reds and pinks here in NH, or rather Trillium erectum and Trillium undulatum. Sure, you might encounter a white trillium (T. grandiflorum. ) now and again, and in wetlands, there is T. cernuum, one I have yet to see. But as we move south on the Appalachian Trail, the Trillium genus opens wide. And the identification from photos gets a whole lot tougher. So, please keep sharing your trillium knowledge on iNaturalist and in this project!
Other spring lilies also diversify as you go south on the trail. iNaturalist continued to be so helpful in my journey of learning. Recently, another member informed that “trout lily” in the southern A.T. states is often Erythronium umbilicatum and not E. americanum, which is what we have in the northern section. And it appears I need to comb through previous IDs to correct some we can differentiate from the photos! If anthers are showing, E. umbilicatum are distinctly purplish/brown while E. americanum are yellow. The fruit is also distinctive, with the former having a dimple and the latter being rounded. Oh, curation is never done, but I am happy to learn these differences and am now wondering if E. umbilicatum have different flowering times from E. americanum. where they are co-located. More to learn, more to share.
Georgia Murray, AMC Staff Scientist
Check out this southern AT resource:
https://plants.ncwildflower.org/plant_galleries/trilliums/