This native perennial grows from 2 to 5 feet tall with a stout, smooth, erect stem. Smooth margined, waxy, lance-shaped to oval leaves with pointed tips occur in whorls around the stem (C,D). The very showy nodding flowers are 3 inches in diameter with 6 orange-red tepals. They are lance-shaped, yellowish at the base and marked with many brownish-purple spots. The pointed tips are sharply recurved exposing the stamens with their prominent reddish-brown anthers and a single stout style.
Moist, lowland prairies, flowering in early July. A single plant was found in the Knull Prairie restoration at Neale Woods in 2002. When photographed this plant had been stripped of its anthers by an unknown ‘assailant’. It is shown in figures B, C, and D. However, in the very moist year of 2010 the cluster which has flowers bearing both anthers and style appeared in the prairie restoration at Camp Brewster (figures A&E).
The similar Day Lily, found at both nature centers, has orange-red tepals which are not as sharply recurved and have no spots. Its flowers are upright, not nodding, and leaves are basal, long and linear with none on the flowering stem.
Other common names include Canada Lily and Wild Yellow Lily.
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