Lilium aurantiacum Pax.

Horticultural & Botanical History

Both Paxton’s and Johnson’s Dictionary describe Lilium speciosum as an orange flowered species from Japan, introduced to Britain in 1833.  The orange colouring does not accord with descriptions of Lilium speciosum Thunb. and it is possible that they are referring to an earlier introduction of L. aurantiacum.  Of the Japanese species Lilium maculatum Thunb., first described in European literature in 1794 but introduced to European gardens in 1835, appears to most closely fit Paxton’s description of Lilium aurantiacum.  [See Lilium maculatum Thunb.].  IPNI relates Lilium aurantiacum Pax., described as a Japanese species, to Lilium bulbiferum L., a southern European species.  [See Lilium bulbiferum L.].  This is possibly a result of confusion with Lilium aurantiacum Dum.Cours. which is synonymous with Lilium bulbiferum L. var. croceum (Chaix.) Pers., synonym Lilium aurantium Haw. ex Loud. which see.   Lilium aurantiacum was introduced from Japan in 1835.  [PD].

History at Camden Park

Listed only in the 1857 catalogue [B.298/1857].  The first reference to this plant is a handwritten entry in a copy of the 1850 catalogue held at the Mitchell Library, inscribed on the front Wm. Macarthur, 23rd Dec. 1854.  [ML 635.9m].

Notes

Asiatic lilies: The profusion of names given to lilies imported from Japan in the 19th century, particularly those introduced by Dr. Siebold, makes it somewhat difficult to ascribe the correct name to several of the catalogue plants.  The following notes from Siebold’s Flora Japonica, reprinted in the Botanical Record [BR f.38/1839], and in the Floricultural Cabinet [FC p.209/1839] are of some assistance.

‘In more than twenty kinds of lilies brought by me from Japan to Europe, and deposited in the Ghent Botanic Garden, are varieties of L. speciosum.  To the one with flowers rose-coloured blotched with purple, I gave the name of L. speciosum Kaempferi, because it was the indefatigable botanist Kaempfer, who first made it known to Europeans.  For the second with pure white flowers, I preserve the Japanese name Tametomo, which it bears in its own country, in consequence of having been first brought by that hero from the Loo-choo islands, as the Japanese assert.  The beauty and fragrance of the flowers of these two kinds rank them amongst the most magnificent of their genus; I should even say that L. speciosum Kaempferi stood at the head of them all, if a variety of L. longiflorum, which I have seen in Japan with flowers often eight or ten inches long, did not dispute the palm on account of its sweetness.  L. speciosum Kaempferi, is cultivated all over Japan as an ornamental plant.  Its true country is probably China, or rather Koorii, if we may judge from its name of Korai-juri or Korai-lily.  It flowers in May and June; in the botanic Garden at Ghent it did not flower in 1832 (the first time in Europe) till August.  Like other kinds of lily it is freely propagated by scales; it does not however bear bulbs in the axils of the leaves.  It succeeds very well in a cold greenhouse, and even in the open air if protected.  The variety of L. tometomo, although it has pleased some botanists to make a peculiar species of it, under the name of L. eximium, differs nevertheless, only in its flowers being quite white, and the leaves rather more distinctly stalked.  According to some of the Japanese botanists it is found wild, not only in the Loo-choo islands, but also in the north of Japan; but it has, perhaps, been confounded with L. japonicum, which is often wild in those countries.’