Lilium rubescens
Lilium rubescens
Lilium rubescens (English redwood lily, lily Chaparral ) is a species of the genus Lilium (Lilium ) in the American section.
Description
Lilium rubescens reaches a height of 60 cm to 200 cm. The bulbs are oval and up to 9.4 cm long, they are covered with broad, white, lanceolate scales and form rhizomes. The stalk is hard and straight with a bluish tinge. The leaves broad and lanceolate, between 3.4 cm and 12.3 cm long and between 1 cm and 2.8 cm wide. They are arranged in three to five whorls of three to fifteen leaves, which become smaller towards the top.
The plant blooms from late May to early August with 1 to 40 in an open umbel upright flowers that smell strong. The hermaphrodite flowers are triple. The six arranged bloom ( tepals ) are backward rolled at the tips toward the base and form a tube. They are 4.3 to 6.6 cm long and between 0.6 cm and 1.4 cm. The basic color of the flowers is wax - white color, which darkens over time, to pink to red to go. The anthers are yellow, the pollen is orange.
The seeds mature in 2 cm to 3.6 cm long, 1.7 to 2.7 cm wide seed capsules, which are crossed by six longitudinal grooves zoom. The seed germinates delayed - hypogeous.
Dissemination
The species is native to California, where she comes from Santa Cruz County to the north along the coast to Del Norte County ago. But in the south of their range, it is almost extinct due to urbanization. The species is listed by the "California Native Plant Society " on the list of rare species ( list 4).
Lilium rubescens needs a dry soil, it grows best in coastal redwood forests (Sequoia sempervirens), rarely also in other evergreen mixed forests at altitudes 0-1500 m above sea level.
Genetics
Lilium rubescens is the only known type of lily that has a long metacentric chromosome and eleven short acrozentrische chromosomes. Metacentric means that the centromere is in the middle, at the acrozentrischen chromosomes it is at the end. All other species of lilies have two long metacentric and ten short acrozentrische chromosomes.