Erythronium americanium AKA Trout Lily, Yellow Dog Tooth Violet  

This is a beautiful little flowering plant native to Connecticut, and a harbinger of spring.  The leaves have a mottled splotched pattern very much as well as a shape resembling the body of a trout hence Erythronium americanium's most common name trout lily.  You will find this plant growing on the damp forest floor during the months of April through May taking advantage of the sunlight before the forest canopy fills in.  The plant is a reluctant bloomer producing blooms during the month of April.   A short time after blooming the foliage dies back for the year.  The leaves turn yellow and wither away returning again the following April.  You often find large stands of trout lily with its attractive mottled leaves but with only one or two plants producing flowers.  A lot of work and energy goes into producing that bloom with the plant requiring up to five years of stored energy to produce it.  The stored energy comes from the process of photosynthesis, which these days may be best explained using the analogy of a solar panel connected to a battery. A solar panel gathers energy, and when connected to a battery any of that energy not expended for other things is stored in the battery.  In the case of the trout lily years of stored energy finally allows for the production of a bloom. You might wonder how a colony of trout lilies can be so massive when there are so few flowers capable of producing so few seeds.  Because the flowers are one of the first in the season to bloom the blooms are pollinated without fail by bees that are extremely hungry after a long winter.  Trout lily plants have a second method of reproduction as well though.  They also reproduce by an unusual cloning method.  They send a multitude of "droppers" best described as long slender threadlike stems that emerge from an existing plant.  The droppers grow up to 10" long, turn a 45-degree angle and burrow deeply into the ground.  After planting themselves the droppers gradually form a corm eventually developing into another plant.  This is how trout lilies form a dense carpet on the forest floor.  The seeds that form from the flowers are also viable.  they are produced in a capsule.  Each of the seeds within the capsule are coated with a sugary substance that ants absolutely relish.  They carry the sugar-coated seed home to share with their buddies.  After the coating is consumed, they toss the seed in their trash pile where it eventually germinates creating another trout lily plant that over time can develop into a new colony. The ant feeding process is called myrmecochory and is a process shared among other plants.   It is interesting to note that many of the trout lily colonies you encounter in the woods can be hundreds of years old.