Turk's-cap Lily

 

As always, click the image to enlarge

A pair of Turk's-cap Lilies (Lilium superbum) creates an impressive candelabra of orange flowers. Between the two plants, there are twenty open blossoms, with more to come.

I was in Cullowhee, North Carolina, last weekend to speak at the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference. It's been going on for four decades, and is one of the largest such events with, I believe, somewhere around 500 attendees and an army of capable volunteers. I was there to speak about moths and their ecological importance as the Thursday night keynote. Thanks to the work of one of the Cullowhee volunteers, Lenny Lampel, who set up a pair of mothing sheets near the venue, we had a mothing party afterwards. I'd bet 100 or more people came to that and we had a great time. I highly recommend the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference, and if you get the chance, go!

As an enormous bonus, the surrounding mountains are rich in a fabulous diversity of flora, including these Turk's-cap Lilies, which were common along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Conference field trips take attendees to many of the great botanical hotspots. Shauna and I spent a few days post-conference exploring the region, and I made many photos of interesting subjects. Hopefully, if time permits, I will post some of those with accompanying stories here.

A Turk's-cap Lily flower in its full glory. The scientific name's epithet, superbum (superb) is certainly apropos.

Two summer jewels

I spent a long weekend in southern West Virginia, visiting some of my favorite places. This is the region where the New River Birding and Nature Festival takes place every year. I made a series of posts about this spring's festival, starting HERE. I understand people are already signing on for next spring's event, so get in early. That festival takes place at the peak of spring, but they could just as easily put one on in mid-summer. I was able to find many birds still singing, and the plants - and various bugs - are outrageous.

A robust Cardinal-flower, Lobelia cardinalis, grows in a damp roadside swale near Babcock State Park. There were many plants, and the swallowtails - Pipevines and Eastern Tigers - were swarming the plants.

A beautiful and relatively easily grown native plant. Not only is Cardinal-flower electric red, it has the added appeal of being a butterfly magnet.

I've found Cardinal-flower to be a surprisingly hard plant to take a great photo of. Not just good, I mean great. Something about the brilliant shade of red causes the flowers to completely wash out in bright sunlight, which were the conditions that I found it in today. If not in full sun, it'll be in shade or worse yet, dappled shade. Anyway, the shots above were taken with manual exposure and were intentionally underexposed to keep the color from looking washed out.

Directly across the road were a number of Turk's-cap Lilies, Lilium superbum, easily at or near the top of the list of North America's most striking lilies. I was excited to see them, as I didn't know there were Turk's-caps in this area. The above plant was so tall that it was groaning under its weight and listing hard to the side. The luxuriant stand of Cinnamon Ferns, Osmunda cinnamomea, make a nice backdrop.

A robust Turk's-cap Lily can tower to eight feet or more in height, and be crowned with a half-dozen plus flowers.

The rich orange flowers are a work of art, and reminded the namer of a Turkish turban. The scientific epithet, superbum, means just that - SUPERB.

The only species that resembles Turk's-cap Lily in these parts is Michigan Lily, L. michiganense, which is easily ruled out where I was as it doesn't occur in West Virginia. A bit tougher to separate is the southern Michaux's Lily, L. michauxii, which is in southernmost WV. It has differently shaped leaves, though.

Turk's-cap Lily is a total showstopper, and it was great to see it. But I saw much more, and I'll try and slap some other West Virginia goodies up here soon.