Species Lilium, Turk's Cap Lily, Michigan Lily

I found this growing in the woods in total shade, near a inland Southeast Michigan Lake. It was at least 8 feet tall!

Cross-pollination is required for fertile seeds. The large showy flowers appear to be designed to attract hummingbirds and larger day-fly...Read Moreing insects, such as Sphinx moths, Hummingbird moths, long-tongued bees, and the larger butterflies. Charles Wilson in Flowers and Insects (1928) observed the Greater Fritillary, Monarch, and Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies as occasional visitors to Lilium superbum, which was probably Lilium michiganense, as the former species doesn't occur near Carlinville, Illinois. Larger herbiovores, such as deer and livestock, will consume mature plants, while immature plants are vulnerable to small herbivores. Small rodents may eat the bulbs.

This is an attractive plant that adapts well to flower gardens. The Michigan Lily can be distinguished from Lilium superbum (Turk's Cap Lily) as follows: 1) the former species has a more northern distribution in Illinois, 2) the anthers of the former are ½" or less, while the anthers of the latter species are ½" or longer, 3) the former has yellow bulbs, while the latter has white bulbs, 4) the tips of the tepals of the former curve backward toward the base of the flower, while in the latter species they curve backward considerably beyond the base of the flower, and 5) specimens of the latter species may have a conspicuous 6-pointed green star at the base of the flower, although it is not always present.