WHIGHAM, Ga. — There is a treasure under the trees in a small patch of forest outside of Whigam, where the gold appears for just a few months out of the year. 

The bright yellow flowers of the uncommon Spotted Trout Lily have reached the peak of their bloom season at Grady County’s Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve. The lilies will adorn the forest floor for a few weeks more before going dormant until early next year. Volunteers at the site invite visitors to come see the lilies before the season slips away. 

These special flowers – named for the coloration of their leaves, which is said to resemble the speckled belly of a trout – are rarely seen outside of Appalachia. Fortuitous conditions, such as a north-facing slope, plentiful water, and just the right kind of soil make this shady hillside an enclave for the flowers and the forest community they dwell within. 

The lilies grow on approximately ten acres of the 140-acre preserve. Within these ten acres, each square foot may host more than one hundred lilies. Naturalists estimate that over one million trout lilies in total call the preserve home. 

Though the Spotted Trout Lily (Erythronium umbilicatum) may be seen in other parts of north Florida and south Georgia, such as the high bluffs along the Apalachicola River and the southern Chattahoochee River, nowhere can they be found in such numbers as at Wolf Creek. The preserve stewards the largest known population of this species anywhere in the world. 

Each individual flower blooms for just four to five days per year. This period of flowering may arrive anytime from early January to early April for a given plant, but the peak of the glory arrives in mid-February, when hundreds of thousands of lilies carpet the slopes in a dazzling expanse of pale gold. The flowers are closed at night and stay hidden until the early afternoon, when they reveal their beauty for a few short hours, closing again with the fall of light. If the sky is overcast, the flowers may not open at all. 

The Spotted Trout Lily must reach four to five years of age before flowering. How long the plant lives is a mystery, but botanists believe that the lifespan of this species may stretch into the decades. 

Like most native wildflowers, the Spotted Trout Lily is pollinated by wind and flying insects, but the seeds are spread by an unusual agent: ants! The small but mighty insects are drawn to the nutritious appendage attached to each seed, which they consume, leaving the rest of the seed to germinate. Often the ants carry the seeds some distance away from the mother plant, thereby expanding the lily’s range. 

Wolf Creek is noteworthy for other treasures in addition to the famous lilies. Spotted Trillium, Spruce Pine, uncommon orchids, verdant ferns, songbirds, gentians, and the Spring Bloodroot, a plant that lacks chlorophyll, are other members of the slope forest community that are found at the preserve. The Spotted Trillium (Trillium maculatum), also known as Spotted Wakerobin and Toad Shade Trillium, is a striking plant, with variegated leaves that resemble artisanal camouflage and a handsome dark-red flower. The Spring Bloodroot (Corallorhiza wisteriana) obtains its nutrition though relationships with mycorrhizal fungi in the soil rather than through photosynthesis, and the Green Fly Orchid (Epidendrum magnolia) is the only arboreal (that is, tree-dwelling) orchid found in the state of Georgia.

Interested visitors can learn more about the ecology of Wolf Creek by visiting the preserve’s website at http://www.wolfcreektroutlilypreserve.org/, by speaking with volunteers on site, or by scanning QR codes mounted on interactive signs scattered along the trails.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, guided tours will not be offered this year, but greeters will be on site to answer questions and provide directions from 1 to 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons. The gates will be open every day for the duration of the season, excepting short closures due to inclement weather or flooding. It is recommended that visitors arrive on sunny days in the early afternoon to see the full extent of the bloom, which will decline day by day until the lilies go dormant in mid-March. No pets are allowed at the preserve, and sturdy, waterproof shoes are suggested for treading the steep, often-muddy slopes. Those with limited mobility can usually navigate the most popular trail with a walking stick and a supporting arm. There is no fee to visit, but donations, which directly support stewardship of the preserve, are welcome. 

The town of Whigham welcomes visitors with a variety of sales and special offers during the season of the bloom, such as the “Trout Lily Special” at the Whigham Café, a local restaurant. 

Wolf Creek Preserve is located on Wolf Creek Road off of Highway 84, about five miles west of Cairo. There is a small brown sign designating the turn-off for the preserve, but drivers should be alert as it is easily missed. The street address closest to the preserve is 164 Wolf Creek Road, a house directly across from the gated entrance to the lily sanctuary. Maps and detailed directions are available on the preserve’s website. 

Wolf Creek Preserve’s Facebook page is updated daily with photographs, notes on trail conditions, and updates on the extent of the bloom. If the preserve is closed due to inclement weather or other factors, a post will be made on this page. 

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Interested readers may contact volunteer naturalist Margaret Tyson with questions or requests for more information. She may be reached at (229) 378-7610 or at mtyson613@gmail.com.