Have you ever looked at a big patch of trout lilies and wondered how many there actually were?

Here, NCBG research botanist Scott Ward (@newyork_botany) takes to the Piedmont Nature Trails behind the Garden to demonstrate a simple, old-school method plant ecologists still use to estimate the number of plants in an area. Dimpled trout lilies (Erythronium umbilicatum), the most common trout lilies in our area, are blooming now in their large, clonal mats. This species is endemic to the Southeast! If you live in the Triangle area, American trout lilies (Erythronium americanum) are less common, but you can occasionally find them. This species – more common in the Northeast – typically blooms a couple of weeks after the dimpled trout lilies here. A key way to tell them apart is by prying apart the flower to look at the ovary: dimpled trout lilies have a striking dimple (like an innie belly button) at the top, whereas American trout lily ovaries end in a smooth, round, un-dimpled top.