Identification
This native perennial has a stout, smooth, erect stem 2-5 feet tall. Smooth margined, waxy, lance-shaped to oval leaves with pointed tips occur in whorls around the stem (B,E). The very showy nodding flowers are 3 inches in diameter with 6 orange-red tepals. Tepals (3 petals and 3 similar sepals) have a yellowish base and are marked with many brownish-purple spots (A,D). Their pointed tips are sharply recurved exposing the stamens with their prominent reddish-brown anthers and a single stout style (D).
The similar Orange 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.
Moist, lowland prairies or open woodlands, flowering in June and early July. Rare at Neale Woods where there was a single plant in Knull Prairie in 2002. Rare in the Camp Brewster prairie restoration at Fontenelle Forest.
Other common names include Canada Lily and Wild Yellow Lily.
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