TROUT, BROWN AND YELLOW

BRrrrr....BUT THE SUN IS OUT

YELLOW TROUT LILY; NOTE MOTTLED LEAVES..

...AND  RECURVED PETALS, NODDING FLOWER...

BROWN TROUT

Tuesday, 8:15 AM.  36 degrees F at the Ferry Dock, 34 on the back porch.  Wind variable, mostly light.  The sky is cloudy and overcast, the humidity 76% and the barometer is mostly steady, now at 30.32".  It got really cold last night after the temperature fell all day yesterday.  By five PM yesterday I had brought all the hanging baskets into the house, where they will stay until the weather warms up.  We had a trace or more of snow clinging to roofs and decks this morning, which is now melting as the sun appears.
   The yellow trout lily, Erythronium americanum, in the Lily Family, AKA dog-toothed violet, is a native wildflower now blooming in damp woods in the Bayfield area.  Being a spring ephemeral, it will bloom,set seed, and complete its annual life cycle by mid-summer.  The bulbiferous plant can form large colonies, and is very attractive in bloom and leaf.  Each mature plant has two mottled leaves and a single flower. Its common name of trout lily refers to the mottled leaves, that resemble the mottled spots of the brown trout. Its native range is most of the eastern North American continent, south to Georgia.  A white flowered species, E. albidum, is also common in Wisconsin.
   Speaking of brown trout, Mike at the Seagull Bay Motel says his usual contingent of spring lake fishermen had a good catch of brown trout out in the Chequamegon Bay and the Apostles, some as large as 9 pounds.  They also caught a few Coho salmon and splake (a hybrid between lake trout and brook trout) .  They only found one smelt ingested by the fish they caught, which indicates that the smelt population is very much down this spring.