Photo by Martha Baskin, courtesy of the North Carolina Native Plant Society
Digital Heritage Moment: Carolina Lily
If you have ever seen a Carolina Lily, you’ll not soon forget it. Its formal Latin name is Lilium michauxii, after the French botanist André Michaux, who collected plant samples throughout the Southeast in the late 18th century. North Carolina’s official state wildflower, the gorgeous Carolina Lily grows in 12 other southeastern states. It grows up to four feet tall and its three- to four-inch flowers display colors on a spectrum ranging from yellow through orange to red, and are covered with purplish-brown spots. It’s easy to mistake it for its larger cousin, the Turk’s Cap Lily, which grows from four up to eight feet tall. The colors are similar and the petals of both bend backwards, resembling a traditional Turkish cap. The main differences between the two species are the size and the number of blooms per plant— the Carolina has fewer. Look for the Carolina Lily blooming in dry woodland areas in July and August.
Digital Heritage Moments are produced at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. To learn more, visit digitalheritage.org.
