Erythronium umbilicatum

Bulbs ovoid, 10-25 mm; stolons absent, or 1 per bulb on 1-leaved plants. Leaves 5-17 cm; blade green, irregularly mottled, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, ± flat, not glaucous, margins entire. Scape 4-18 cm. Inflorescences 1-flowered. Flowers: tepals strongly reflexed at anthesis, yellow, sometimes with brownish adaxial spots, variously tinged brown-purple abaxially, lanceolate, 13-30 mm, auricles absent; stamens 9-18 mm; filaments yellow, lanceolate; anthers brown, purple, or infrequently yellow; pollen brown, purple, or infrequently yellow; ovary apex indented; style deciduous or forming small apiculum, ± terete, not yellow, 8-24 mm; stigma lobes spreading, 1.2-1.7 mm. Capsules ± resting on ground due to reclining peduncle, obovoid, 10-22 mm, apex indented, umbilicate, or rarely rounded. 2n = 24.

Much like no. 1 [Erythronium americanum Ker Gawl.], but scarcely colonial, the sterile corms without offshoots, or producing only one; pet not auriculate; style slender throughout; ovary and fr umbilicate, the fr lying on or near the ground; 2n=24. Moist woods and rocky slopes; Va., W.Va. and w. Md. to Ala. and n. Fla. Mar.-May.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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