Lilium canadense L.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘There are two varieties, one of a yellow, the other of a deep red-brown colour; it also varies with from one to twelve flowers.  Is said by Parkinson to have been brought by the French colony from Canada into France, and from thence to us in 1629.  Catesby found it in Pensylvania, and Michaux in the Alleghany mountains of Carolina and Virginia.  Flowers in July and August; should as well as superbum be kept in bog-earth in a somewhat shady and moist situation; is tolerably hardy and propagates abundantly by its bulbs, which are of a creeping nature; in very severe winters these are sometimes destroyed, unless protected by a covering of ashes or old tan.

Our drawing was taken at the Botanic Garden, Brompton, from a specimen of the more rare and less beautiful variety which had blown rather weakly from being planted in too small a pot.’  [BM t.800/1804]. 

The deep orange coloured form is figured at BM t.858/1805 and Lilium canadense flavum at FS f.1174/1856.  BF p.210/1840.

History at Camden Park

Listed in all published catalogues [B.301/1843].  Received per ‘Sovereign’, February 1831.  [MP A2948].

Notes

Lilium canadense Thunb. (1784) probably = Lilium medeoloides A.Gray, a Japanese species.