July 26 Michigan Lilies

The prairie continues to shine at the Nature Center, but today I took a look at these michigan lilies (Lilium michiganense). Not to be confused with the turk's cap lily (Lilium superbum), which is a different species, these tall orange flowers with 6 maroon-spotted tepals and 6 long curling stamens with dark oblong anthers will grow in small patches in wet prairie and moist hardwood openings. You can easily tell it apart from the wood lily, which has upright flowers. More difficult is knowing it from turk's cap lily, which has stamens that drop more straight down from the center of the flower and dark anthers at the ends which are longer than a half inch. Finally, superbum is very rare in Wisconsin, only growing in places where it has been introduced.