Lilium grayi

The species was named to honor Asa Gray, an eminent American botanist of the mid-19th century who discovered Lilium grayi in 1840 in the Appalachian Mountains on Roan Mountain. At the time, Gray wasn't sure that it was a unique species, thinking that it might be a variety of Lilium canadense. He found more plants there in 1879 on a trip with Charles Sprague Sargent. Sereno Watson, curator at the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University, found several differences from Lilium canadense, confirming that it was a distinct species, and named the plant in honor of his colleague.{{cite book|author=Alice Lounsberry|title=Southern Wild Flowers and Trees: Together with Shrubs, Vines and Various Forms of Growth Found Through the Mountains, the Middle District and the Low Country of the South|url=https://archive.org/details/southernwildflo00loungoog|accessdate=2 September 2012|year=1901|publisher=F.A. Stokes Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/southernwildflo00loungoog/page/n100 51]}}{{cite book|author=Christian Lamb|title=From the Ends of the Earth: Passionate Plant Collectors Remembered in a Cornish Garden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-NWBoLGLWU8C&pg=PA165|accessdate=2 September 2012|date=1 October 2004|publisher=Christian Lamb|isbn=978-1-903071-08-3|page=165}}[http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=537586-1 IPNI Listing for Lilium Grayi]

Lilium grayi reaches {{convert|2|to|5|ft|m|abbr=on}} tall. The {{convert|2|to|3|in|cm|abbr=on}} leaves are lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate and carried around the stem in whorls. The {{convert|2.5|in|cm|abbr=on}} reddish-orange bell-shaped flowers bloom in early summer and are carried on several umbels in a tiered style. Sepals and petals have purple spots.Christopher Brickell, The RHS Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, Dorling Kindersley, London, 1996, p615. {{ISBN|0-7513-0436-0}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/wildflowers/lilium_grayi.html|title=Lilium grayi|work=Wildflowers|publisher=North Carolina State University|accessdate=2 September 2012}}

Lilium grayi is closely allied to Lilium canadense, the Canada lily, and was originally thought to be that plant. L. grayi tends to have smaller flowers that are less pendulous, more open at bottom, and more suddenly narrowed at the apex.{{cite book |author1=Joseph Dalton Hooker |title=Curtis's botanical magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ecWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA7234|accessdate=2 September 2012|year=1892|publisher=Reeve Brothers|page=7234}}

Lilium grayi is native to mountainous regions in only three U.S. states: North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee.[http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Lilium%20grayi.png Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map] It grows in sandstone and acidic soils, meadows, open areas near summits, forest meadows, and bluff outcrops. It grows in full sunlight. Habitat is threatened by overgrazing by cattle, European wild boars, and rabbits. Increase of tree canopy also decreases available open habitat. The plant has also been reduced by illegal collecting and is susceptible to fungal infections.

{{Gallery

| Image:Lilium grayi 2.jpg|1892 illustrationillustration from [http://www.botanicus.org Curtis botanical magazine v.118, plate 7234, 1892 ] Author Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817 - 1911)

| Image:Lilium grayi 3.png| Photo of single flower Taken on Roan Mtn.|

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{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111026052117/http://www.centerforplantconservation.org/Collection/CPC_ViewProfile.asp?CPCNum=2546 Center for Plant Conservation]
• [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242101731 Flora of North America]
• [http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=537586-1 The International Plant Names Index]
• [http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LIGR2 United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile]

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grayi

Category:Flora of the Eastern United States

Category:Plants described in 1879