Erythronium grandiflorum var. grandiflorum
Yellow Avalanche Lily

Family: Liliaceae (Lily family)

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

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