Lilium kelleyanum

Kelley's lily

Family: Liliaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Kelley's lily is a California native perennial found in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains in subalpine forest hillside seeps, wet thickets, and streamsides at elevations of 2,200 to 3,300 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces yellow to yellow-orange flowers with magenta anthers, hanging in pendent clusters of 1 to 15 blossoms with widely bell-shaped petals that dramatically reflex in their upper 60%. Growing up to 2.2 meters tall with a spreading-elongate bulb, it develops distinctive whorled leaves that spread out and droop slightly at their tips. Its leaves are arranged in 1 to 4 whorls, measuring 7.5 to 17.5 centimeters long with straight margins. The plant's bulb has scales that are typically two to three-segmented, with the longest scales reaching 1 to 3 centimeters in length.

Habitat: Hillside seeps, wet thickets, streamsides in subalpine forest

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 2200-3300 m

Bioregions: c&amps SNH.

California counties: Fresno, Mariposa, Butte, Tulare, Siskiyou, Trinity, Mono, Inyo, Madera, Humboldt, Kern, Tehama, Tuolumne, Plumas, Sierra, Shasta, Placer, Del Norte, El Dorado

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.