lilium 2012

[Liz Mills]

Help please.  Is this Lilium oxypetalum insigne or Lilium nanum?  From where it grows in the garden it could be either.  It's about 8 cm tall.

[ronm]

Wim, red colouration (on the yellow and to varying degrees ) is the more common state in L.lophophorum than is the totally clean clear yellow apparently. There was an excellent article in one of the AGS Journals in recent times, which contained a very good paragraph or two about this species in its natural environment. I was hoping to point you towards this article, but cannot refind it . Maybe others can help pin it down, but I will keep searching my back issues and hopefully between us we can get it,

[Maggi Young]

 Lilium lophophorum in AGS bulletins.....  : 56/128-9, 131C, 221, 63/152, 64/143,

150, 156, 170, 218, 68/307, 309, 70/274, 327, 357,

71/218, 72/327

Checking now to see which is the one Ron remembers.

[ronm]

Wow Maggi !
It can only have been in the last few years I think, unless I was reading an old copy and didn't realise .
I'm sure it was part of a long article about a visit to Himalayas / China,  .

In the meantime check out the description and pictures from here, red spotting shown and mentioned.
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=118558
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200027726

[Maggi Young]

I think Ron may have been thinking about this quote by Martin Walsh :
"On the same slope grew a small colony of that highly refined alpine lily, Lilium lophophorum. Its solitary, nodding yellow flower is singed purplish-brown on the reverse of its tepals and rises on a 15cm  high stem  above a rosette of pale green, almost sessile leaves, which vary from lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate. The pendant flower is probably at its most attractive when the apices of the tepals are still fused, givingthe impression of a Chinese lantern. SA few plants had two flowers per stem, while others had their six long tepals fully parted to give a more bowl-shaped flower, so revealing the reddish-brown spotting on the inside and the large golden anthers"   

 Checking the other references from the same AGS bulletin...... but I think this will be the correct one

[WimB]

Thanks Ron and Maggi 

I had never seen it with red spotting!

[ronm]

Ringing a bell there Maggi, thank you , amazing speed of access by the way! .
I think between all of this we have shown Wim that L.lophophorum does have red spots and speckles along with the yellow,

[Maggi Young]

Happy to help!
I get slowed down by my tendency not to put issues back in their proper place after I've used them! ( But please don't mention to the BD that I admitted that!)  

I cannot decide whether I like the L. lophophorum better spotted or plain.... I think .... plain.
They're all lovely, that's the problem.   

[ronm]

Agreed they are all lovely, and I think I too prefer plain, although as I mentioned this is apparently the rarer state.
I have found it difficult from bought in bulbs, but two years ago acquired seed, from a number of people who were growing it well, and it germinated like cress, and the seedlings have grown very strong, so ....... fingers crossed

[WimB]

I get slowed down by my tendency not to put issues back in their proper place after I've used them! ( But please don't mention to the BD that I admitted that!)  

 

I cannot decide whether I like the L. lophophorum better spotted or plain.... I think .... plain.
They're all lovely, that's the problem.

I would say plain too, but that's probably because I grow the spotted one and I always want the thing I don't have yet   

[olegKon]

My Lilium oxypetalum insigne

[Maggi Young]

Help please.  Is this Lilium oxypetalum insigne or Lilium nanum?  From where it grows in the garden it could be either.  It's about 8 cm tall.

  We vote for L. nanum, Liz

[ronm]

May we see a full frontal of the flower please Liz?

[Liz Mills]

Glad it's the full frontal of the flower that you want to see, Ron.  Will go out with my wee camera again tomorrow.

[Diane Clement]

  We vote for L. nanum, Liz

I also go for L nanum.  L oxypetalum usually has uneven tepals, which I suppose is part of the reason it has been redesignated as Nomocharis oxypetala.