Erythronium is a genus of about 20 species in the Liliaceae family. Most of the species are from Western North America but there are also a few in eastern North America and Eurasia. They are woodland or mountain meadow plants enjoying humus rich but well drained soil. They bloom in the spring.
Dr. Geraldine Allen of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, has been studying Erythronium for many years. She finds that the genus can be divided into two sub-genera, one comprising E. dens-canis, its forms, and the various eastern American species; and one comprising the western erythroniums native to the Pacific Slope of North America. In her view, as a genus, Erythronium is most closely related to Tulipa, an observation that seems almost obvious if you turn an erythronium stem straight up.
The Western Erythroniums can be split into two groups, those with mottled leaves and those with plain leaves. The ones with mottled leaves are generally considered the most beautiful, and certainly the leaves themselves add greatly to their beauty. Those from foothill woodlands with mottled leaves bloom in the spring and are dormant in the summer. Those from montane meadows and willow thickets have green leaves, summer flowers and are dormant in winter.
The Western erythroniums are botanically distinguished by details of the stamens, stigman, and other sexual organs. Most of the species are quite easy to distinguish.
For more information consult Jane McGary, 2001, listed in References.
Erythronium albidum Nuttall is native to the northeastern states where it grows in forest and scrub. It has small white flowers with a yellow throat and small light green leaves spotted reddish brown and spreads by stolons. Photos by John Lonsdale.
Erythronium americanum Ker-Gawler is found in moist woodland and on rocky wooded hillsides from southeastern Canada to Minnesota south to Texas. It has solitary flowers that are yellow flushed with brown, yellow inside with darker spots. The leaves are spotted in two shades of brown. It is stoloniferous. Photos by John Lonsdale.
Erythronium californicum Purdy grows in humus-rich soil in moist woodland in the Coast ranges of northern California. Grown from seed, the leaves at first were just green, but have become more mottled as the plants got older. Flowers are white with a greenish yellow base marked by a ring of yellow, orange, or brown. The first three photos by Mary Sue Ittner of plants blooming March 2004. The first picture shows a flower with a brown ring and the second one with a yellow ring (using plastic background to help me focus) and the third picture shows the pot with leaves and flowers. The fourth picture was taken by John Lonsdale and the last by Bob Werra.
Habitat pictures taken in Sonoma County California of populations growing on a wet bank alongside the road. Photos by Mary Sue Ittner. Geophytes growing with the first one include Oxalis oregana and Scoliopus biglovii.
Erythronium californicum 'White Beauty' is considered by some to be a white form of E. revolutum but others feel it is just a clone of E. californicum. (Comment: Dr. Geraldine Allen says 'White Beauty' is clearly a cultivar of E. californicum, perhaps with some hybridity in its ancestry.) It was introduced by Carl Purdy who selected it from his collections of bulbs he dug from the wild. This selection produces offsets more often than most of the plants in this species.
Photo by John Lonsdale.
Erythronium caucasicum is from the Caspian region of Iran and has creamy colored flowers. Photos by John Lonsdale.
Erythronium citrinum S Watson is native to pine woods in the Siskiyou Mountains area of SW Oregon and NW California. Its leaves vary in the degree of mottling - some are almost entirely dark. The cream yellow-centered flowers have auricles at the base of the petals, and an almost-unlobed stigma.
Photos of plants flowering in mid-March in the Illinois Valley of Oregon by Diane Whitehead. The pink of one flower may be from hybridization with E. hendersonii, although I saw none growing in the area.
Erythronium dens-canis, the dogs-tooth violet, is a species of uncertain taxonomic delimitation, widely native across the Eurasiatic landmass. Several epithets are sometimes treated as subspecies of E. dens-canis and sometimes as distinct species:
- caucasicum
- japonicum
- sibiricum
While bulbs purporting to belong to these taxa are available in the trade, it is not clear how accurate the naming is. Buyer beware!
Erythronium helenae Applegate is a rare species found in dry serpentine soils in oak and pine woodland and chaparral in Napa and Sonoma Counties, Calfornia. It appreciates warmth during its summer dormancy. Leaves are mottled and it has large white widely opened flowers with a yellow base, yellow anthers and auricles at the petal base. On warm days it smells of orange blossoms. The first photo was taken by John Lonsdale. The next two photographs were taken by Mary Sue Ittner of plants seen growing on a gravelly bank in Lake County very close to Sonoma County.
Erythronium hendersonii S. Watson is native to the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon and northern California. The flowers are quite fragrant, an unusual characteristic in this genus shared with E. helenae. E. hendersonii hybridizes readily with E. oregonum, producing intermediate forms with interesting central zones. It requires a dry but not desiccated situation in summer. Photos by Jane McGary and John Lonsdale.
Erythronium japonicum is a member of the dens-canis group and is often described as E. dens-canis ssp. japonicum. It is renowned for the deep violet color of its flowers. Would-be purchasers are warned, however, that there are strains grown for food purposes in Japan that have mediocre flowers and these are often what is sold as E. japonicum. This is definitely a bulb to be purchased either in flower or from a source known to be extremely reliable.
Erythronium mesochoreum Knerr is found in Iowa and Nebraska south to Oklahoma. It has small white to pale lavender flowers with a yellow center. Photos by John Lonsdale.
Erythronium montanum S Watson is native to alpine and sub-alpine meadows in mountains from British Columbia to Southern Oregon. Its leaves are plain green and shiny. The white flowers have bright yellow centres and a distinctive three-part stigma. Photos of plants flowering the end of May along the San Juan Ridge on southern Vancouver Island by Diane Whitehead. Buds ranged from white to dark pink, but the flowers were all white.
Though Erythroniums from high altitudes are often difficult to grow at sea-level, some of the medium altitude plants rescued from this logging site are growing well in wooded gardens at a lower elevation.
Erythronium multiscapoideum (Kellogg) A. Nelson & Kennedy is native to the wooded slopes in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada of California. It has become a good garden plant and one of the first western species to bloom with white flowers with a yellow center. Photos by Mary Sue Ittner below show a back view with multiple stems which is one of the distinguishing characteristics and the leaves and more flower pictures. The last photo was taken by Arnold Trachtenberg.
Erythronium 'Pagoda' is a yellow flowered Erythronium that is a cross between E. tuolumnense and E. californicum 'White Beauty'. Photos by John Lonsdale
Erythronium revolutum Smith is native to the Coast Ranges from southern British Columbia south to central California. It prefers well drained habitats that are moist (woods near streams.) It has dark mottled leaves and rose pink flowers with yellow centers and auricles at the base of the petals. Photos by John Lonsdale.
Remarks by Rodger Whitlock: The banks of Sutton Creek, a stream flowing into Lake Cowichan on southern Vancouver Island, are lined with E. revolutum for miles upstream from the mouth. This is an easily accessible area thanks to a logging road in good condition that runs parallel to the stream. There is a BC government ecological reserve near the mouth, but the erythroniums in it are gradually waning. At one time, this now-reserve was privately owned and cattle were turned into it in the summer. Thanks to their cropping of later-rising herbaceous vegetation, the erythroniums thrived and spread. Cattle have not been run on the property now for a long time, and the usual stream-side vegetation has recovered, so the display of Erythronium revolutum in the reserve is greatly surpassed by that upstream.
Nonetheless, this is a site worth visiting if you are on Vancouver Island in mid-April. Paved road right to the reserve. The parking area has been blocked off due to the locals using it as a rubbish dump, so you must park by the side of the road. If you choose to follow Sutton Creek upstream, remember that you are on an actively used logging road and be careful on weekdays when logging trucks are in transit on it.
Erythronium 'Sundisc' is a yellow hybrid that has E. tuolumnense and a white Erythronium in its heritage. Photo by John Lonsdale.
Erythronium tuolumnense Applegate grows in rich gritty humus in open woodland in Tuolumne County, Calfornia, an area with dry hot summers. Its native habitat is threatened by logging. It has yellow flowers and uniformly green leaves and is the parent of many of the hybrids. It increases by offsets and is reported to appreciate some moisture during its summer dormancy. The first two photos were taken by John Lonsdale. The next three were
were taken in March 2008 by Mary Gerritsen. We found several well flowered populations along steep hills in a river valley in Tuolumne County.
Erythronium umbilicatum Park & Hardin is native to West Virginia and North Carolina. It has spotted leaves and deep gold flowers flushed rusty red. The first photo was taken by John Lonsdale. The other photos by Alani Davis were taken of a natural population in the Florida panhandle.
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