Small Leopard Lilies (Lilium parvum) and Davidson's Fritillaries (Fritillaria pinetorum) are two varieties with small, beautiful flowers. I found both in California, the first on Mt. Dana in Yosemite National Park, the second further south in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Small Leopard Lilies, like last week's Pine Lilies, bring to mind the more common orange-flowered species, the showy kind with lots of freckles. Small Leopard Lily flowers, while they do grow in groups at the top of the stem, resemble Pine Lily flowers in color, though perhaps they are more red than orange. The center of the flower, at the base of the petals, is yellow with maroon blemishes. And like Pine Lilies, the flowers do not droop, but flare outward.
They grow in wet habitats in the mountains from 6,000 to 9,000 feet.
Davidson's Fritillaries, a cousin of the more common Chocolate Lilies such as I found near Roslyn, WA., are not so common. They grow in drier habitats in the woods. These flowers are painted with a kind of mottled brown and green and yellow Rorschach pattern. They are one of those startling finds where you can't believe your good luck.
Bear Grass (Xerophyllum tenax) and False Hellebore (Veratrum viride) are a couple of lilies I've found in the Pacific Northwest, the first around Mt. Hood in Oregon, the second in the meadows below Washington's Mt. Rainier.
Bear Grass is a showy wildflower, its many tiny white flowers growing in a broad dense cluster atop a thick stalk, which in turn stands among a bunch of large, basal, grass-like leaves. And they grow often in colonies. Its generic name means 'dry leaf,' and the specific tenax means 'tough,' both of which refer to the fibrous leaves.
Native Americans of the northwest bleached and dried large quantities of the leaves to later be woven into hats and capes and baskets. Rodents, deer and elk eat the flowers, stalks and seedpods, while bears favor those tough leaves, thus giving us its common name.
False Hellebore, or Indian Poke, is a big, look-at-me incredible Hulk of a plant. It can get up to six feet tall, has large pleated leaves - they can be a foot long and six inches wide - and bears branching clusters of green, starry flowers. It grows in wet areas, often filling soggy meadows.
Go To Page: 1 2
