Erythronium grandiflorum (Avalanche Lilies)
Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado June 2012
Erythronium grandiflorum (Avalanche Lilies)
Description
General: perennial, the stems 10-40 cm tall, leafless,
unbranched, from deep, elongated, bulb-like corms. Often
growing in large patches.
Leaves: basal, 1 pair, bright green, not mottled, narrowly
to broadly oblong-elliptic, 10-20 cm long, narrowed rather
gradually to broad stalks.
Flowers: usually solitary, nodding. Tepals lanceolate,
4-8 mm broad near the base, cream to bright yellow, 25-35
mm long, curved backward. Filaments white, linear, the
anthers white, yellow or brown, or somewhat purplish, up to
10-12 mm long before opening and scarcely half as long
afterward. Style slender, stigmas rather thick, 1-2 mm long,
spreading.
Flowering time: April-August.
Fruits: capsules, erect, 3-sided, club-shaped, 3-4 cm
long.
Distribution
Moist, shaded to open sites, sagebrush slopes to montane
forest, sometimes to near treeline, in w. and s.c. parts of
MT. Also from s. B.C., WA and OR to WY and CO.