Kellogg’s lily

Bulbs ± ovoid, 3.6–7.5 × 2–5.2 cm, 0.9–2.4(–2.7) times taller than long; scales unsegmented, longest 3.1–6.4 cm; stem roots absent. Stems to 2.1 m. Buds rounded in cross section. Leaves in 2–7 whorls or partial whorls (scattered and ± proximal in dry, exposed sites), 3–22(–40) leaves per whorl, drooping at tips to ascending, 6–16 × 0.9–4.4 cm, 2.6–8.5 times longer than wide; blade elliptic, usually narrowly so, often weakly oblanceolate, rarely obovate, margins undulate or not, apex acute; veins and margins ± smooth abaxially. Inflorescences racemose, 1–27-flowered. Flowers pendent, fragrant; perianth Turk’s-cap-shaped; sepals and petals reflexed 1/3 along length from base, pink, less often white, and if so usually aging pink, usually with copious maroon spots and proximal median longitudinal yellow stripe extending from basal nectaries, not distinctly clawed; sepals darker pink abaxially and usually distally, not ridged abaxially, 3.4–7.2 × 0.9–1.7 cm; petals 3.2–7.1 × 0.9–1.9 cm; stamens moderately exserted; filaments ± widely spreading, diverging 10°–22° from axis; anthers pale red-orange or magenta, 0.5–1.4 cm; pollen orange; pistil 2.9–4.2 cm; ovary 1.5–3 cm; style green, often pale; pedicel 8.8–23.8 cm. Capsules 2.9–5.7 × 1–1.6 cm, 2.2–3.7 times longer than wide. Seeds 177–309. 2n = 24.

Flowering summer (mid Jun--early Aug). Gaps and roadsides in redwood [Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endlicher] or mixed evergreen forests, gaps and edges in chaparral; 200--1300 m; Calif., Oreg.

Kellogg’s lily occurs from Humboldt County, California, north to just over the Oregon border. Like Lilium bolanderi and L. pardalinum subspp. vollmeri and wigginsii, it is endemic to the Klamath Mountains.

Occasionally plants occur with one or more whorls coalesced into tufts with as many as 40 leaves. Plants in open chaparral are usually of small stature with compact inflorescences and the ascending leaves are undulate on the margins. Plants of forest gaps are larger, with open inflorescences and flat, horizontal leaves. Lilium kelloggii is pollinated by pale swallowtail butterflies (Papilio eurymedon Lucas, family Papilionidae) and western tiger swallowtails (P. rutulus Lucas).