WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO
With grass-like leaves and 3–8 inch tall stems topped with small white flowers, this petit lily dots treeless alpine tundra, rocky fell-fields, and stream banks in dense conifer forests. Note the 6 white petal-like tepals lined with pencil-like marks.
FLOWER: June–August. Flowers erect, 3/4 inch wide (20 mm), usually solitary; 6 petal-like tepals (3 sepals and 3 petals all alike), are white with yellowish nectaries and rose to purplish or greenish veins.
LEAVES: 2 basal leaves, grass-like, 1 1/2–4 inches long (4–10 cm); 2-4 alternate leaves on stem are much shorter.
HABITAT: High-elevation, sandy, gravelly soils; drainages, creek sides, grassy slopes, rocky outcrops; alpine tundra, spruce-fir forests.
ELEVATION: 9,900–12,621 feet.
RANGE: AK, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY; circumboreal.
SIMILAR SPECIES: The high-elevation habitat, grass-like leaves, and flowers with 6 white tepals distinguish this species within its range.
NM COUNTIES: High-elevation habitats in NM mountains: Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Taos.
ALP (ALPINE) LILY
LLOYDIA SEROTINA
Lily Family, Liliaceae
Perennial herb
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Members of the Lily family have 3 sepals and 3 petals, all equal; together they are called tepals.
Alp lilies have 2 grass-like basal leaves (left arrows) and 2–4 small alternate stem leaves (right arrows). Species in the Lily family have leaves with parallel veins.
