Pine Lily
Lilium catesbaei
Liliaceae (Lily) Family

Photo (left) courtesy Mike Carter, August 27, 2009 Pine Lily is also known as Southern Pine Lily and Western Pine Lily. The plant is an upright, smooth perennial from a bulb. Its preferred habitat is savannas, pine lands, bogs and roadside ditches of the coastal region. Distribution is throughout Florida and the Coastal region of Alabama. The leaves are alternate on the stem; linear, widest at the middle; tapering to a point with sides less than equal or slightly blunt and nearly rounded. There will be no teeth and no lobes.

The flowers are solitary at the end of tall stalks. The perianth parts are well-parted (a collective term for calyx and corolla) to the base and have reflexed tips. The color is orange to red-orange and spotted toward the base. Flowers occur in the summer.

Fruit is a capsule.

There is much speculation as to how this lily became established in Escambia savannas. One theory is that when local forestry was searching for more disease resistant pine trees they looked to the western states to supply the seedlings necessary for crossing with the longleaf and loblolly already known. The tiny bulb of the lily was inadvertently shipped as well. It liked the climate and established itself in coastal woods, spreading slowly but steadily, which accounts for the name Western Pine Lily.