OregonFlora species comparison

Dry scrub, coastal prairie, gaps and roadsides in conifer forest especially along coast. Flowering May–Aug. 0–2000m. Casc, CR, ECas, Est, Sisk, WV. CA, ID, WA; north to British Columbia. Native.

This widespread lily is rather variable. Oregon plants tend to have exserted stamens and the “Turk’s-cap” flower form associated with large butterfly pollination. Patches of flowering plants can be thick with western tiger swallowtails and pale swallowtails. Lilium columbianum hybridizes with L. pardalinum ssp. wigginsii and vollmeri, and extensively with L. occidentale in southern coastal Oregon. Lilium columbianum may intergrade with L. kelloggii along Highway 199 at the border between California and Oregon; these plants are slightly fragrant and the bulb scales unsegmented, all characteristics of Kellogg’s lily. Native Americans used Lilium columbianum bulbs as a food or peppery condiment. For many, it was a staple food (Pojar and MacKinnon 1994).

Serpentine soil in chaparral, conifer forests. Flowering Jun– Aug. 400–1400m. Sisk. CA. Native.

Lilium bolanderi can be fairly common in its preferred scrubby serpentine savanna habitat. Hybrids with L. pardalinum and L. washingtonianum ssp. purpurascens are possible. The range of corolla color variation from decidedly yellowish through red to maroon is extreme for the genus in North America—only L. canadense is similarly variable—but most are pale red to magenta. In Oregon, Bolander’s lily is primarily pollinated by rufous hummingbirds.