Prairie (Wood) Lily Lilium philadelphicum
Taylor Lake, Waterloo County
22 June 2014
Miriam and I joined a plant walk led by Larry Lamb, a veritable botanical encyclopedia, through the meadows and woodland surrounding Taylor Lake, where the Carolinian Zone reaches its northern limit. Hence, numerous species not found mere kilometres away are located in this very special area. In fact the sheer diversity of species that are rare and unique to the area led Larry to exclaim that it should be declared a national park!
There are many photographs to pore over and we will need to get out our field guides to identify some of the species, but the flower that caused Larry the most excitement was the Prairie Lily shown below. While not endangered across the continent as I understand it, it is nevertheless very rare in this area, and was cause for great excitement. Its beauty certainly impressed even those among us who did not appreciate its rarity.
