Trout lilies are lilies, not violets; the name "dogtooth violet" is derived from the shape of
its bulb. Botanist Carol Gracie relates the story of the odd-seeming name adder's tongue,
which may have come about due to the mottling on the leaves:
...John Burroughs, a nineteenth-century American naturalist and writer, felt that
adder's tongue was an inappropriate name for such a lovely plant and suggested either fawn-lily,
for its leaves are spotted like the back of a fawn, or "Still better is the name ‘troutlily,’ which has recently
been proposed for this plant. It blooms along the trout streams, and its leaf is as mottled as a
trout's back." (p. 26)
Identification: These plants often form dense colonies.
Leaves are sharp-tipped ovals, some narrow,
some wide, curiously mottled with brownish or purplish irregular splotches. They are 3-6″ (7.6-15 cm) long. Flowers are yellow inside and bronze, yellowish-brown or yellow outside, nodding, with six petals (technically, tepals).
As the flowers mature, their petals bend way back, fully exposing six long brown stamens tipped with
six anthers about ½″ (1.3 cm) long. The anthers are yellowish brown at first, darkening
to deep red-purple.