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Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Common
Name

Scientific
Name

Plant
Family

Garden
Location

Prime
Season
Turk's-cap Lily
Lilium superbum and Lilium michiganense Farw.
Lily (Liliaceae)
Upland and Woodland
Early Summer to Late Summer
Other names and notes

The tall Turk's-cap lilies are identified by the backward curving tepals. This completely reveals the stamens and the pollen. Flowers can appear as singles on in an umbel of 2 or 3. They have 6 yellowish to reddish orange tepals with yellow bases and brown speckles and 6 stamens. Leaves (3 to 7) form a whorl on the stem and are alternate on the side branches. Curiously, when the seed head forms, it will turn upward as it matures. Inside are hundreds of wafer thin disc seeds. This plant is becoming uncommon in the wild due to cultivation and roadside mowing. Like most lilies the plants grow from a bulb with offsetting rhizomes.

L. superbum and L. michiganense are very similar. The identification difference is that L. superbum has a green star in the center of the flower whereas in L. michiganense it is very faintly defined. As the flowers nod downward that star is not seen from a distance. L. superbum has anthers of 1/2" length or longer, the other shorter. L. superbum has tepals that curve beyond the base of the flower, the other not as far. L. superbum has a white bulb, the other yellow.
Turk's cap lily flower
 Turks cap lily seed pods turks cap lily seed
Above right: The upward turned seed heads of late fall. They will remain throughout the winter if the stalk is not blown down. Far right: Each seed pod has several stacked vertical rows of wafer thin seeds.
Turks cap lily flower
Turks cap lily
Below and above: Blooms of mid-July.
 
Turk's-cap lily
  
Notes: Eloise Butler first noted L. superbum in the Garden in 1908 in which she year she also planted more; she logged planting a dozen bulbs in 1910 that were obtained from Northrup King (Seed and Nursery Company) and she planted it again in 1911 and 1913. L. michiganense is also indigenous to the area around the Garden. It is native to most counties in the eastern half of Minnesota and a few further west in the west-central part of the state. L. superbum is not native to the state but widely introduced. It is native the the SE Quadrant of the U.S.  
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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.  
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