WHIGHAM — Volunteers from Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve showcased the 2019 bloom season Wednesday to local elected officials.

Volunteer tour guides Dan Miller and Beth Grant explained how the tens of millions of yellow and maroon dimpled trout lilies came to settle in what is now a 140-acre conservation area east of Whigham during the last ice age.

“When the Ice Age retreated, the temperatures warmed, it left behind little pockets of these plants here and there,” Miller said. “While they’re very rare in our area, they’re more common farther north. What makes this site so unique is the density of these plants. The sheer number of them is extreme.”

Members representing the Grady County Board of Commissioners, Grady County Board of Education, the Cairo-Grady County Chamber of Commerce and the city councils of Cairo and Whigham were invited to attend the tour.

Volunteer Margaret Tyson told officials about various projects made to improve the preserve for visitors, including a recently-erected kiosk constructed by members of Boy Scout Troop 383 and ultraviolet-coated signage to provide directions and plant identification. That was made possible through a $1,000 grant provided by the Golden Triangle Resource Conservation and Development Council.

Tyson said the Whigham Community Club provides volunteers to greet visitors and request donations, which are then used to print maps and brochures, mark plants and create other improvements for the preserve.

Miller said part of the reason why the trout lilies thrive at the preserve is the area’s unique geological properties, such as the presence of pipe clay, which is used as a moisture absorbent for products such as cat litter and other drying agents.

“One reason the plants are here in such density is that while they like cool temperatures they also like moisture,” Miller said. “The nature of the soil is that the pipe clay is only a foot or two below the surface. When it rains, the water percolates through the top soil and hits that layer of plasticky, grayish clay and just sheets off down the slope to lower elevations down to the creek. As a result, there’s always a steady amount of moisture near the surface.”

The species of trout lily at Wolf Creek, Erythronium umbilicatum, is one of 20 to 30 species of the plants found across the world.

Trout lilies open late in the morning and follow the sun, eventually closing at dusk.

The Wolf Creek preserve is the most extreme concentration of trout lilies anywhere in the world, with tens of millions of the flowers forming an uninterrupted 15-acre bed that stretches across the forest floor.

Their bloom season lasts just three to four weeks each year, typically at its peak in mid-February.

Trout lilies are endangered in Florida and were considered to be rare in south Georgia before the discovery of the colony at Wolf Creek more than a decade ago, according to Grant.

Tyson said she and other volunteers had been meeting at the preserve on a monthly basis to prepare the site for visitors and remove invasive species to protect the trout lilies.

Other species of wildflowers at the preserve include spotted trillium, green fly orchids, crane fly orchids, southern tway blade orchids, coral root orchids, blue gentians, Florida bellworts, bloodroot, atamasco lilies and spider lilies.

Grant said the preserve is kept open during the trout lily bloom season but remains closed throughout the rest of the year.