Sanctuary Yellow Trout Lily Traditional Cache
Sanctuary Yellow Trout Lily
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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YELLOW TROUT LILY
Check Geocache "GC31A0C" for the beginning of the trail.
This cache is named after one of the flowers you might see in the Annie Sturgis Sanctuary.
This native perennial plant is about 4-6" tall, consisting of 1-2 basal leaves and a flowering stalk with a single flower. Immature plants produce a single leaf and fail to flower, while mature plants that bloom produce a pair of leaves. The basal leaves are up to 6" long and 2" across. They are lanceolate or narrowly ovate, smooth along the margins, and either solid green or a mottled combination of pale green and grayish green. The leaves may fold upward slightly along the mid-vein, or they remain flat. The surface of each leaf is glabrous and waxy. A naked flowering stalk develops between the basal leaves of mature plants. This stalk is light green to reddish brown, glabrous, and nods downward at its apex, where the flower occurs. Each nodding flower is about 1½" long and across; it consists of 6 white tepals, 6 stamens with long yellow anthers, and a slender style with a stigma that has 3 lobes that spread outward. The tepals are linear-lanceolate and strongly recurved, while the stamens and style are exerted. The blooming period occurs during mid-spring and lasts about 2 weeks. Each fertilized flower is replaced by a 3-chambered seed capsule that is ovoid and about ¾" long. Each chamber of the seed capsule contains 2 rows of flattened seeds. The root system consists of a corm that is several inches below the surface of the ground; this corm produces fibrous roots at its base and occasionally sends out underground stolons that can form new plants a few inches away from the mother plant. White Trout Lily can produce large colonies of plants if it is left undisturbed for several decades. Please see picture below.
This small wild flower sanctuary offers visitors two short nature trails that cross tiny brooks and wind through attractive conifer and hardwood forest. The Sanctuary totals about 40 acres situated along the east bank of the Kennebec River. The Sanctuary is OPEN during DAYLIGHT HOURS from April 1 to October 31 and is CLOSED from November 1 to March 31. No pets are allowed. Please check the Attributes for other restrictions.
Very limited parking is available ONLY on the shoulder of this rural road, but it is wide enough to get your car completely off the road. Please do not park in the field. The property is marked with "Private Property" signs, but the Sanctuary has a "right of way" to the right side of the pine trees. You will see markers along the way nailed to the trees. Please stay on the marked "right of way" to the Sanctuary. There is some poison ivy along the "right of way" part of the trail, particularly near the beginning. Once at the beginning of the Sanctuary please sign the "guest book" and then enjoy your walk.
The Massachusetts based "New England Wild Flower Society" (NEWFS) owns the property and has permitted me to place a few Geocaches there as an experiment. In return I am helping them with the upkeep of the Sanctuary. Please stay on the trails as much as possible and "cache in trash out" to show them that having Geocachers there will not impact the Sanctuary in a negative way. If we do a good job, maybe we can talk them into opening other Sanctuary's to Geocaching in the future.
** Congratulations to togusfinder for the FTF! **
No nanos or micros were harmed, damaged, or used in the making of this cache!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Yrnir ab fgbar haghearq
Treasures
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