Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

67. Liliaceae, the Lily Family

2. Lilium L. -- Lily

1. Lilium philadelphicum L. -- Wild lily

Erect, glabrous perennial 2-9 dm tall, from a scaly bulb. Leaves cauline, sessile, mostly alternate below to opposite or whorled above, linear to linear-lanceolate, 3-8 cm long, 3-9 mm wide, parallel-veined, blunt-tipped. Flowers 1-3, terminal, erect, large and showy, on peduncles 1-8 cm long; tepals orange-red, yellow and dark-spotted toward the clawed base (very rarely the tepals solid yellow), 4-8 cm long, 0.8-2.8 cm wide; stamens and pistil prominent, abut equaling the perianth; anthers 6-10 mm long; stigma 3-lobed, style elongate, ovary superior. Capsule loculicidal, oblong, 2.5-4 cm long; seeds flat, closely packed. Late Jun--Jul. Wet meadows, low prairie, boggy places, seepage areas and ditches, also prairie hillsides, woodlands and thickets; frequent from nw and e ND to e SD, also the Black Hills and n NE; (NH to B.C., s to NC, KY, IA, NE and NM).

Plants of this region belong to var. andinum (Nutt.) Ker.


Lilium philadelphicum.

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