Lilium parvum

Alpine lily, sierra tiger lily, Sierra Tiger Lily

Family: Liliaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Alpine lily is a California native perennial found in northern and central Sierra Nevada Mountains in wet meadows, willow thickets, and streams within conifer forests at elevations of 1,400 to 2,900 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces nodding flowers with perianth parts 3.2 to 4.2 centimeters long, light orange to red with pink tones on the upper portion and pale yellow stamens. Growing up to 1.7 meters tall with a spreading-elongate bulb, the lily emerges with leaves arranged in 2 to 5 whorls, each 4 to 15 centimeters long. Its leaves have straight margins, and the plant produces between 1 and 26 flowers that range from nodding to ascending. The flower is notable for its bilateral, funnel-shaped structure with stamens that extend beyond the perianth and anthers ranging from pale yellow to magenta.

Habitat: Wet meadows, willow thickets, streams in conifer forest

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1400-2900 m

Bioregions: n&ampc SNH.

California counties: Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Sierra, Mono, Butte, Alpine, El Dorado, Trinity, Plumas, Madera, Fresno, Tuolumne, Tulare, Inyo, Amador, San Bernardino, Calaveras, Kern, Siskiyou, Tehama, Los Angeles, Lassen, Shasta

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