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Friday, July 24, 2009


Taman Keceriaan -
L
ilies, such as the Tiger Lily, Lilium tigrinum, at the right, have six stamens (composed of anthers and filaments), one pistil (composed of the stigma, style and ovary), a long style, and a three-lobed stigma. In the picture these parts are clearly visible and they compare fairly well with the "typical" features of our Standard Blossom.

One thing very different between lily flowers and our Standard Blossom, however, is the flower's colorful part. In lilies, the calyx and corolla, so distinct in our Standard Blossom, are merged so that it's impossible to define those six bright orange items in the picture as either a calyx's sepals, or a corolla's lobes or petals. In the picture we label them "tepals," which is a term sometimes used for situations just like this, when the calyx and corolla are not distinguishable.

IDENTIFICATION KEYS IN
FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA

You can "key out" your unknown finds of native plants belonging to the Lily Family at the Flora of North America site. Go to the key near the bottom of the page you arrive at when you click the above link, figure out your unknown plant's genus, click on the genus, then key out the species. These are technical keys using technical terms, but they are very useful.

The Tiger Lily in the picture is a member of the genus Lilium. Several other kinds of pretty garden plants also belong to the Lily Family and share many features with lily flowers. These include hosta, day-lily, aloe, tulip, hyacinth, and grape-hyacinth.