Sierra Fawn Lily Seeds (Erythronium multiscapideum)

Appearing in snowmelt-fed spring meadows and spacious forests, like something from a fairytale…Sierra fawn lily is just as impeccably beautiful as other members of its genus.

It attracts some of the mid-elevation species of spring-emerging wild bees that one might expect: Hippotes’s mining bee (Andrena hippotes), the bear-like digger bee (Anthophora ursina), the bufflehead mason bee (Osmia bucephala) – and fatty seed appendages attract seed dispersing ants which move the seed throughout the understory duff. Meadow voles gather and cache the bulbs when they can, stashing them hither and yon, sometimes creating more colonies of this plant.

But wildlife associates aside, this California endemic (native to the Sierra Nevada and coastal ranges), is simply a visual stunner. Bright white flowers of recurved petals and sunshine-yellow centers emerge between February and May, preceded by their namesake ‘fawn-speckled’ leaves. One look at this wilderness flower, and the entire ornamental plant industry façade crumbles – like a flash of instant enlightenment -- conventional big box nursery plants are revealed for the garish atrocities that they are when compared against Sierra fawn lily.

This is a small-ish plant. Just 6 to 14 inches tall. If it were larger, it might incapacitate us with its beauty.  Plant it in alpine-inspired gardens, in high quality open forest understories, in containers as the most glorious ikebana sculpture. It will want ample early spring moisture, and dry, cool, shaded summers.

And note…like every lily, these are easy but slow to grow from seed. Best planted in the summer or fall, outside in containers, then overwintered (ideally with cold precipitation or snow). With care, you will be rewarded with a single short-lived spring leaf. The second year you will receive the same reward. The third year the same. Be patient. Nothing this great can be rushed. In five years, perhaps 10 if you are not sufficiently deferential to the plant, you will receive a flower. Treat it like family. Divide it in time to make more. Your lifetime work can make a meadow of lilies.

20-seeds (0.1 grams).