Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum - Wood Lily Home - Plant Profiles & Photos

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Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum, wood lily, is a beautiful showy native herbaceous perennial plant that blooms in the summer. This plant is NJ endangered. For further information, click on the "More info" button above.

Flowers

The spectacular brilliant red-orange bell shaped flowers are large, about 4 inches across and face upward which is unusual for a lily.

Wood lily flower has 6 tepals. If you look closely, the 3 petals have ridges down the middle and form the inner whorl while the sepals the ridges are less distinct and form the outer whorl of tepals. Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum - Wood Lily - Flower, top view, sepals and petals

This side view of the wood lily flower shows the distinctly clawed shape of the 6 tepals. The narrow part at the base of the tepal is called the claw while the wide section above is called the limb. Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum - Wood Lily - Flower, side view, claw shaped tepals

A close up of the 6 stamens and the pistil are seen here. Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum - Wood Lily -  stamens and pistil

The flowers may form a cluster of one to three flowers on top of the uppermost whorl of leaves.Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum - Wood Lily -  flower cluster


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Plant, Leaves and growth habit

The unbranched plant grows to 1.5-2.5 ft. tall. It has three to 11 leaves per whorl. There may be a few oposite leaves in between the whorls. However, var. philadelphium has its leaves mainly in whorls.

The habitat reported in the literature is - grassy balds, moist to wet meadows (especially in thin soils over rock), and open woodlands.

Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum - Wood Lily - flowers at the top of unbranched stem Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum - Wood Lily  - layers of whorled leaves Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum - Wood Lily growing in a grssy area



All photos by H & M Ling, 7/1/2019, Sussex County, NJ.

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Additional information

Additional information / references:

The USDA website shows the wood lily distribution in the US and it is threathened in many states: https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=LIPHP .

New Jersey Heritage Natural Heritage Program, in its endangered plant species list, gives Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum - Wood Lily these classifications:
G5=Demonstrably secure globally; although it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery.
S2=Imperiled in New Jersey because of rarity (6 to 20 occurrences)
HL=Indicates taxa or ecological communities protected by the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act within the jurisdiction of the Highlands Preservation Area
NJ Heritage Natural Heritage Program overview: http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/natural/heritage/
NJ Heritage Natural Heritage Program list of endangered plants: http://www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/natural/heritage/njplantlist.pdf
NJ Heritage Natural Heritage Program status codes: http://www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/natural/heritage/spplant_ap1.html

Flora of North America: plant description and discussion of other varieties: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242101743

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