This week, I’m featuring Canada Lily (Lilium canadense) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.
PLEASE NOTE: New York Protected Status: Exploitably Vulnerable = Native plants likely to become threatened in the near future throughout all or a significant portion of their ranges within the State if causal factors continue unchecked.
Identification Tips:
This perennial wildflower is 2-4′ tall and unbranched, except near the apex where the flowers occur. The central stem is light green and smooth. At intervals along this stem, there are whorls of 3-8 leaves with 1 or 2 alternate leaves occurring along the upper portion of the stem. These leaves are up to 6″ long and 1″ across, narrowly ovate, smooth along the margins, and stemless. The upper surface of each leaf is medium to dark green and smooth, while the lower surface is a lighter shade of green with fine short hairs along the parallel veins.
Canada Lily whorled leaves
The upper stem terminates in 1-5 (rarely up to 20) yellow-orange to red-orange flowers on long stalks. Each stalk nods downward at its apex and some stalks may have 1 or 2 leafy bracts that resemble the leaves, except they are smaller in size. Each trumpet-shaped flower is about 2½” long and across with 6 tepals that each curve backward. The throat of the flower is yellow with purple dots. There is no noticeable floral scent.
Well-established plants and those occupying the best sites of the plant’s preferred habitat can be quite tall and otherwise spectacular with a candelabra-like or even a multi-tiered chandelier-like arrangement of blooms. View my prior post, One Beautiful Canuck, to see photos of each of these extraordinary examples.
Each fertile flower is replaced by an oblong seed capsule that is about 2″ long and half as wide.
Each seed capsule is divided into 3 cells; within each cell, there is a stack of large, flattened seeds. These are wind dispersed when the capsule opens.
Plant stem and (usually opened) seed capsules often persist through winter, aiding their identification.
Culinary and Medicinal Uses:
Flower buds and roots of this plant were gathered and eaten by Native Americans. Rich in starch, it can be used as a vegetable in similar ways to potatoes. The taste is said to be quite similar to raw green corn on the cob. The bulb can be dried, ground into a powder and used in making bread. However, it is principally viewed as a “famine food,” used only when better foods are not available.
It is also said to have been used medicinally to treat several ailments. A poultice made from the bulbs can be applied to snakebites, while a tea made from the bulbs has been used in the treatment of dysentery.
Wildlife Value:
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) are recognized as the prime pollinators of Canada Lily.
The floral nectar also attracts large butterflies, particularly Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) and various Swallowtail Butterflies. Halictid bees collect pollen from the flowers, but they are ineffective at cross-pollination because of their small size.
Several mammals readily browse on the foliage of native lilies, while voles and chipmunks eat the corms. In fact, overbrowsing by White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has been documented as a significant factor in the diminishing populations of this plant in northeastern forests. View the USDA-Forest Service study.
Where Found Locally:
Curious By Nature 
