Lilium pardalinum cultivation

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:22:55 PDT
Stephen wrote
>  It was interesting to see so many scales on this species.

Lilium pardalinum has a rather unusual bulb that, when mature and 
allowed to do so, becomes quite elongated with many loose scales. 
This may be an adaptation to its typical habitat on streamsides, 
where floods would dislodge the bulbs and spread the scales 
downstream. It may also, as in the case of some other California 
bulbous plants, be an adaptation to predation by burrowing animals, 
which would eat the main bulb but (the plant hopes) miss some of the 
loose scales that would become buried in the disturbed soil. 
California has a number of "rice grain" Fritillaria species, and some 
of the Themidaceae (Brodiaea, etc.) also produce numerous small offsets.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA





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