Yellow Mariposa Lily © Gerald & Buff Corsi/Focus on Nature, Inc.

Simple-shaped Flowers

Description The slender stems of this plant bear a few narrow leaves and at the top 1-4 large, deep yellow, bell-shaped flowers in an umbel-like cluster.
Flowers: 1-1 1/2" (2.5-3.8 cm) wide; sepals 3, lanceolate; petals 3, broad, fan-shaped, long, usually with fine red-brown lines on lower portion and also often with a central red-brown blotch; gland near base of petals broadly crescent-shaped, covered with short, matted hairs.
Leaves: 4-8" (10-20 cm) long.
Height: 8-24" (20-60 cm).

Flower April-June.

Habitat Heavy soil in grassland and open forests at low elevations.

Range California Coast Ranges and western foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

Discussion This species and some others frequently reproduce asexually by means of small "bulblets" in the leaf axils, which drop to the ground and grow into new plants.