Calochortus bruneaunis
Bruneau mariposa lily
Family: Liliaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Bruneau mariposa lily is a California native perennial found in northern and eastern Sierra Nevada, Modoc Plateau, and southern Sierra Nevada Mountains in dry shrublands and pinyon/juniper woodlands at elevations of 1,700 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from May to August, this lily produces white flowers tinged with lilac and marked by a distinctive median green stripe, with dark red or purple arches above a yellow nectary. Growing 10 to 40 centimeters tall with a simple stem and small bulblets, it has basal leaves up to 20 centimeters long that wither during flowering. Its flowers feature narrowly obovate petals 20 to 40 millimeters long, with delicate golden hairs near the nectary and a round, fringed nectary densely covered in short hairs. The mature plant produces erect, lance-linear fruits 3 to 7 centimeters long with light tan, nearly flat seeds.
Habitat: dry shrub- or grassland in pinyon/juniper woodland
Bloom period: May-Aug
Elevation: 1700-3000 m
Bioregions: n SNH, e edges c&s SNH, MP, s SNE
California counties: Inyo, Mono, Tuolumne, Tulare, Sierra, Lassen, Modoc, Shasta
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.