Columbia lily (Lilium columbianum)
One of our most common native lilies, Columbia lily (Lilium columbianum) is a show-stopper with its freckled orange flowers and dramatic leaf whorls. And, since it grows happily in habitats ranging from coastal to alpine meadows, you don’t have to go far to find it!
Though Columbia lily’s flowers are its most obvious trait, its corms (similar to a bulb) are also noteworthy: they’re a traditional food source for tribes throughout the Puget basin and beyond, including the Klallam, Lummi, Quileute, Skagit, and Skokomish people. The corm is described as starchy and slightly sweet, reminiscent of sweet chestnuts.
Though Columbia lily is tolerant of many habitats (including roadside ditches!), their morphology can differ quite a bit. The individuals featured in this post were found in adjacent, but very different, habitats: the numerous-flowered one in a recent clear-cut with little shade, and the singly-flowered individual in mature second-growth Douglas fir forest. It always amazes me how plants respond to and adapt to their habitats, especially when it comes to sunlight.
References
Charmaine Delmatier, Columbian Lily (Lilium columbianum) (Washington, DC: United States Forest Service, 2018), accessed 2023.
Mark Turner and Phyllis Gustafson, Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest (Portland: Timber Press, 2006), 298.
Native American Ethnobotany Database, Lilium columbianum search, 2023.
