Today's photograph was taken in mid-June of 2005. Many thanks to Brent Hine, UBC's curator of the E.H. Lohbrunner Alpine Garden, for sharing it.
This is the second unidentified species of Lilium from a collection expedition to Sichuan to be featured on BPotD. The previous entry was on November 1, 2005. Ignoring the fact that there are paired flowers on today's plant, you can see a superficial resemblance between the flowers of the two different lilies in tepal colouration and markings. Both have white tepals peppered with black spots (what is a tepal and how is it different from a petal? In the broad sense, both the petals and sepals (see photograph in this link) of a flower are tepals, but tepal is typically used as a term when the petals and sepals can not be easily differentiated from one another, such as the three petals and three sepals in these lilies).
If you feel like wearing your plant taxonomist hat today, feel free to add a comment on how the two flowers differ (again ignoring the obvious paired flowers in today's plant, which I'm not certain as to whether it is a chance or common occurrence).
Botany / conservation resource link: Learn about Centres of Plant Diversity in The Americas. Each centre is described in detail including geography, flora and vegetation.
It appears the flower on the left has six anthers, while that on the right has five (although one might be hidden in photo?).
As a gardener, rather than a botanist, the picture above reminds me most of the "Asiatic Lilies Mix for Naturalizing" that I bought and planted in my garden. The smallish flowers with petals that open out in a rather flat circle, and heavy-ish anthers. And although the flower color is different, perhaps the hybrids I have derived from a species like this one.
The other photo, apart from the flower color, looks much more like a lilium martagon or lilium pardelinum (pardalinum?), with the curled back petals and less thick anthers. And I read that those are native to the Northwest, and not from Asia.
If the flowers in the photo are similar to the ones I mentioned, then I would expect to find the above flower in a sunnier glade, and the flower from the November photo in a slightly shadier spot, maybe by a stream.
I think it is more interesting that they have such similar coloration.
You asked for comments!
Beautiful lily! What does it key out as? L. matangense?
Aside from the reflexed petals in the other picture, I'm having trouble finding significant differences...maybe just something that happens to the flower as it ages?
There are a few more differences, if you look closely you will notice that the "November lily" has dark green/black nectaries (L. taliense?) and a green stigma, and then there's the length of the carpel and stamens.
I think the two flowers be on the same footstalk.They are same to each other.
Hi yunhua - yes, these two flowers in this photograph are on the same stalk. The request for a comparison was between this image and the one from the November 1, 2005 link.