A fascination with the tiger lily

There’s something about this fiery orange flower that always, and I mean always, makes me stop and gaze. I wrote about how I captured and edited an image of one of these lilies last year, here.

So I decided to find out a little more about this attractive but mysterious plant, and visited The Flower Expert. Here’s what I learned…

• • The flowers of this perennial can grow up to three inches in width.
  • The Tiger Lily is also known as the Ditch Lily as it is found in and around ditches in large parts of America. (Interestingly, that’s where I found those I photographed above.)
  • The bulbs of its plants are boiled and eaten in some countries, especially China. They taste like potatoes.
  • The Tiger Lily was first described by the famous Swedish botanist Carl von Linne (Linnaeus) in 1753.
  • The Tiger Lily has some toxic effects on cats. It can produce vomiting, inappetence, lethargy, kidney failure, and even death.
  • There is an old legend from Asia about the Tiger Lily. A Korean hermit helped a wounded tiger by removing an arrow from its body. The tiger asked the hermit to use his powers to perpetuate their friendship after his death. The hermit agreed and when the tiger died, his body became a tiger lily. Eventually the hermit drowned and his body was washed away. The Tiger Lily spread everywhere searching for its friend.
  • There is a superstition that smelling a Tiger Lily will give you freckles.
  • The Tiger Lily stands for wealth and prosperity.

And that’s why I’m fascinated by the tiger lily!