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| Picture Notes: This picture was shot on 04/08/2015 while hiking the Butterfly Trail inside the 7,400 acre Snow Canyon State Park, near St. George, Utah. In looking for this flower on the Internet, These pictures are the best of any that I found showing this beautiful color. |
| Description: Not really sure if I should classify this as the Sego Lily (Calochortus gunnisonii or Calochortus nuttalli), a.k.a. Mariposa lily, or as the (Calochortus flexuosus), also known by the common names, Winding Mariposa Lily, Weak Stem Mariposa Lily, Straggling mariposa lily. Calochortus, is a genus of 65 species including the Sego and Mariposa lilies. In any case, it is a wildflower native to southwestern Colorado, southern Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, southeastern California and northern Mexico where it is most often found in desert scrub, growing up through low shrubs at elevations between 2,000 feet and 7,500 feet. It likes dry stony slopes, desert hills and mesas that contain Creosote, Sagebrush, Joshua tree, piñon-juniper, chaparral and other warm desert shrub communities. The Sego Lily is the Utah state flower. This lily is mainly one long naked stem with only one or two small blue-green leaves toward the base. The stem may branch and is usually winding and bent or curving and can grow to 6” to 18” high. At the end of the stem is a showy, tulip-like flower in shades of pink or lavender to white, with solid yellow and stripes or spots of white and red at the base of each petal. Each flower has 3 petals ranging from white to lavender having a yellow base. The three light green sepals are lance shaped, sharp pointed and about 2/3 as long as the petals. It has distinct pink stamen tips, a purple area at the base of the petals, and prominent yellow/orange tipped hairs near the gland. Each lily has 1 to 4 flowers, each with 3 white petals (and 3 sepals) which are tinged with lilac (occasionally magenta) and have a purplish band radiating from the yellow base. It blooms between April to June. |
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