WHITE MARIPOSA LILIES

With good competition from the Red Columbines, AQUILEGIA TRUNCATA, and scarlet-topped Paintbrushes, CASTILLEIA PINETORUM, probably the hike's most gorgeous wildflower was one growing like a weed along certain roads. It was the White Mariposa Lily, CALOCHORTUS VENUSTUS, and you can see one here.

White Mariposa Lilies are like large, white tulips with big, red-brown spots at the base of each of the three "petals." They're unlike tulips in that the "petals" are broad and outward-flaring, causing the plant sometimes to be known as globe-tulips and butterfly-lilies as well as mariposa-lilies (mariposa is Spanish for butterfly).

Mariposa lilies are members of the Lily Family. A few weeks ago I told you about the Yellow Star Tulip, CALOCHORTUS MONOPHYLLUS, of the same genus. Like the genus Brodiaea, Calochortus contains a lot of species and some are abundant and spectacular in the West. I can't think of similar genera back East, behaving and looking like gone-wild tulips. That name, Calochortus, is built from classical Greek words meaning "beautiful grass."