Erythronium grandiflorum var. grandiflorum
Yellow Avalanche Lily

Family: Liliaceae (Lily family)

© 2002 Thayne Tuason. Photo taken at Leavenworth Ski Hill, openly forested area, one of the first flowers to bloom in spring with Claytonia lanceolata.

© 2010 Thayne Tuason. Leaf from a young plant that won't flower this year, but will just photosynthesize and gain energy for next year with the one leaf it has. New seedlings look very similar to this but the leaves are not as large or wide.

© 2010 Thayne Tuason. Plant just prior to blooming in early March. Leavenworth Ski Hill.

Flowers:

solitary or 2-5 in a loose raceme on a naked peduncle, nodding; tepals pale to deep yellow, lanceolate, mostly 4-8 mm wide, spreading to reflexed; anthers variable in color, white, red, yellow, or purple; filaments linear

Leaves:

generally a basal pair; blades narrowed gradually to a broad petiole; lanceolate to ovate; uniflormly green

Plant:

perennial; glabrous. Traditionally the bulbs were cooked and eaten or dried and stored for future use by the Okanagan-Coville, Okanagan, Shuswap, and Thompson.

Habitat:

shaded to open woods and slopes; lowland to subalpine

Distribution of species:

southern British Columbia, Olympic Mountains, and Washington Cascades, to northern Oregon, east to Montana, Wyoming and Colorado

Distribution of genus:

more or less 25 species: especially in temperate North America