LILIES - RHS Lily Group

Above, Erythronium propullans. The flowers of
this rare species from Minnesota are usually less
than 1cm long. Above right, a leaf of E. revolutum
showing the mottled pattern confined to the
area between the main veins. Right, a leaf of E. dens-canis showing the random
pattern of mottling, cutting across veins.
recognition is justified but it is certainly distinct as a horticultural subject. Another
Californian species is among those I rate highly: E. helenae. Again it is not unlike
E. californicum with white flowers and mottled leaves but here the flowers have
a large yellow zone in the centre and the stamens (anthers) are yellow (white in
E. californicum). This is named after Mount St Helena, not Washington State’s
Mount St Helens which blew its top so spectacularly in 1980.
Eurasian and eastern North-American species
The Eurasian species are, of course, delightful garden plants although less
spectacular than the western American ones. But of course E. dens-canis does
have an AGM, awarded to the species as a whole. I find that the bulbs of the
named commercial clones tend to split up and form non-flowering clumps so it
is necessary to try to counteract this by digging them up frequently and feeding
with a potash-rich (e.g. rose) fertilizer. Plants from wild stocks or seeds tend to
flower much more freely but the rate of increase is slower. To collect seeds one
has to move fairly quickly for, as with Galanthus, Sternbergia and Cyclamen, the
seed pods touch the ground and ants will soon remove the contents, attracted
by a fleshy appendage or (in the case of Cyclamen) a sugary coat. Interestingly
the Eurasian and eastern North American species of Erythronium behave in this
way but the western ones all have upright capsules whose seeds are distributed
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