Alternate name: Checker Lily, Rice-root, Rice-grain Missionbells
Family: Liliaceae, Lily view all from this family
Description On an erect stem, leafy in the upper part, leafless below, bloom several nodding, greenish-brown, deeply bowl-shaped flowers.
Flowers: 3/4-1 1/2" (2-3.8 cm) long; 6 lanceolate petal-like segments, brownish, mottled green or yellow.
Leaves: 1 1/2 to 6" (3.1-15 cm) long, lanceolate, generally less than 10 times as long as wide, in several whorls on the stem.
Height: 1-4' (30-120 cm).
Flower February-June.
Habitat Grassy or brushy flats and slopes, or in open woods.
Range Southern British Columbia to southern California; eastward to northern Idaho.
Discussion The genus name comes from Latin fritillus, meaning "dice box," in reference to the short, broad capsule characteristic of the genus. There are several species similar to Chocolate Lily. Spotted Mountain Bells (F. atropurpurea), also called Checker Lily throughout much of the West, has flowers 1/2-3/4" (1.3-2 cm) long, and leaves at least 15 times as long as wide. Black Lily or Kamchatka Fritillary (F. camchatensis), from northwestern Washington to Alaska, has dark purplish-brown flowers. Another species called Chocolate Lily (F. biflora), from the Coast Ranges of California, has dark brownish, unmottled flowers, and all leaves on the lower part of the stem.
