Lily Family – Liliaceae
Actual flower size: 1 inch across
Chocolate Lily is also called Checker Lily, Mission Bells, Rice Root, or Skunk Lily. Former Latin name was Fritillaria lanceolata
Plant Description: Chocolate Lily is 1 to 3 feet tall, erect, unbranched, bending at the top, with 1 to 5 nodding bell-shaped flowers. The leaves are narrow, lance-shaped, smooth, 6 inches long, in 1 or 2 whorls of 3 to 5 on the lower stem and alternate and erect above.
Flower Description: The flowers are 1 inch across. The 6 separate tepals are 1 inch long, brownish purple, mottled with greenish yellow blotches, lance shaped, with pointed tips. There are 6 yellow anthers on slender filaments and 3 much longer styles joined to about 1/3 their length and much longer than the stamens.
Ecology: Chocolate Lily grows among trees or shrubs where it is cool and moist and in meadows at low to middle elevations, west-side and east-side.
Note: Chocolate Lily has a disagreeable odor that attracts flies and beetles.
Chocolate Lily Photo Gallery
Actual flower size: 1 inch across