Meet The Panhandle Lily! 🌿 

TAXA TUESDAY 🌿
w/ the Florida Native Plant Society
Meet the Panhandle Lily!
Panhandle Lily
Lilium iridollae
Family: Liliaceae
The Panhandle Lily is endemic to just the western Florida Panhandle and a few adjacent counties in Alabama. It’s rare even within this narrow range and is listed as a State Endangered species in Florida; and is currently under review for listing nationally by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
If you are lucky enough to find it, it’ll be in seasonally wet areas: low flatwoods, seepage bogs, and wet prairies - similar habitats to those where pitcher plants (Sarracenia spp.) are also found.
They can reach as tall as 6 feet but are typically 3-5 feet. In spring, the single flower stalk arises from its underground bulb. By July, each bulb produces one strong stalk with a few skirts of whorled leaves along it. Each stalk will produce one solitary flower that opens, hanging downward from the stem. You occasionally see a plant with two blooms or more, but this one with FOUR was quite exceptional!
The flowers are 3-4 inches across with an inner green star at the throat fading out to a pale yellow and rich orange on the petal - all speckled with burgundy spots.
When fully open, the recurved petals overlap over the back of the stem, forming a spherical basket-like shape. Long, prominent stamens hang downward like spider legs with large rusty-colored anthers that tremble in the wind.
Like other native lilies, the Panhandle Lily is pollinated mainly by large swallowtail butterflies. If pollination occurs, a large seed capsule eventually ripens, containing plentiful seeds. If able to germinate, those seeds take many years to mature to bloom size.
Since this species is so slow-growing and requires consistently wet and mucky soils, it’s uncommon in the horticultural industry. You may have better luck finding Lilium superbum, another Florida native Lily that is easier to grow and more readily available.
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Thanks for tuning in! 👋🏻
Video & description by Lilly Anderson-Messec, FNPS Director of North Florida Programs
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