Michigan Lily Flower
July 5, 2018 – The Michigan lily is a strikingly beautiful flower having blooms of yellow-orange to orange-red that are covered with purplish spots. The flower seems to float in the sea of the surrounding summer foliage. Their contrast of color against that summer world dominated by green can easily remind one of the paper lanterns of the Chinese Shangyuan lantern festival as the orange lilies give the impression of a glowing lantern hanging at the end of their long sturdy green stems. The lilies, with their unusual recurved peddles, bloom for about a month from early to mid-summer. They are perennial and can reach a height of 4 feet. These pendent lilies attract hummingbirds, butterflies and many other species of insects to their nectar. The winged visitors become covered in a yellow-orange pigment of pollen as they fly from flower to flower finding sustenance while at the same time pollinating the lilies. As the flowering stage wanes the glorious attraction of bright color soon gives way to those less glamorous earthy seedpods. The Michigan lily is not considered rare, compared to the almost indistinguishable Turks Cap lily found in a few counties in far Southern Illinois, but it is an uncommon native plant species found in scattered counties throughout the state and does require a healthy natural area to even exist. Michigan lilies can be cultivated adding both beauty and the benefits of nectar to a personal garden or landscape but the real treat is to see the plants with their showy blossoms thriving in the wild in some remote sunny opening at the edge of a wooded area where they will most certainly attract pollinators and nature lovers alike.
Wild Michigan Lily Plant