Lilium humboldtii (Humboldt's lily) is a species of lily native to the US state of California and the Mexican state of Baja California. It is named after naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. It is native to the South High Cascade Range, High Sierra Nevada, south Outer South Coast Ranges, and the Santa Monica Mountains and others in Southern California, growing at elevations from 600 meters (2,000 ft) to 1,200 meters (3,900 ft).
Lilium humboldtii grows up to 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, with flowers that are maroon-spotted, golden-orange with dark red splotches, with orange to brown stamens. The plant flowers in June, with flowers growing in a pyramidal inflorescence.
The flowers are on stout stems, which are sometimes brown-purple.
The subrhizomatous bulb is large, with yellowish-white scales, and grows very deep in the soil.
The leaves grow in whorls and are undulate, shiny, and oblanceolate.
It is summer-deciduous, dying back after flowering in mid- to late summer.
Subspecies:
Lilium humboldtii subsp. humboldtii - central California
Lilium humboldtii subsp. ocellatum - southern California, Baja California
Both subspecies are on the California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of California and described as "fairly endangered in California".
Albert Kellogg, unaware that the plant had already been named by Roezl and Leichtlin, gave it the name Lilium bloomerianum. For some time afterward, the name was still applied to the southern California Lilium humboldtii subsp. ocellatum.
