WOOD LILY 



Lilium umbellatum Pursh 



June - July Stiff and straight with its simple, concise stalk and its 

 Woods v.horls of leaves, the wood lily suddenly puts cups of 



llame in the shadows of the sunnner woods. Unlike the 

 downward-hung bells of the Turk's cap or the yellow Canada lily, the 

 wood lily faces its red-orange cups to the shafts of sunshine coming into 

 the woods of June. Blindingly, the morning sun strikes that vivid blos- 

 som, and the light rays bounce off' the lirillianee so that the flower almost 

 seems to hold an aura of light around it. 



Narrowly, the six red-orange petals taper to join the base of the 

 flower where the stiff, upi'ight stamens and the three-cleft pistil stand 

 erect. There are a few spots of purple scattered purposefully on the bright 

 yellow splash of color on the lower part of the petals. This is the flower 

 and its dramatic power, its few and precise accents wliich make of the 

 lily a splendid creature to discover in the woods. 



The wood lily is rare in Illinois, but occasionally it is found in dry 

 oak woods of northern Illinois — a few here and there, standing on two- 

 foot stems, unbranched, with one flower at the top. There is one flower 

 to make seeds. Then the i)urpose of the lily for that year is finished. One 

 flower, one seed-pod, one stalk, one blub. A blazing I'ilv is in bloom. 



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