A perennial with a round white edible bulb, one of China's traditional food lilies. Stems 70–150 cm with scattered lanceolate leaves. Trumpet flowers, cream-white flushed purple-red outside (hence the Chinese name pale purple lily), 13–18 cm long, held outward, intensely fragrant, with orange-yellow anthers. One to several per stem. The epithet honours the Scottish botanist Robert Brown.
Habitat
Grassy slopes, open woodland, roadsides and rock crevices at 300–2,000 m; often seen along hill roads south of the Yangtze in summer.
Distribution
Native to most Chinese provinces (Gansu and Shaanxi to Guangdong, Fujian and Yunnan), Hong Kong, Kinmen and Matsu, and northern and central Vietnam and Kachin in Myanmar; common in the hills of eastern, central and southern China, absent from Japan and Singapore.
Season and behaviour
June and July, July in the mountains; one flower lasts about a week, scent strongest at dusk.
Photography tips
These are the FilmAnalysis editors' notes, not content from the sources.
The purple flush outside separates it from the Easter lily and shows only from the side or behind; half a stop to a stop under for white trumpets. A wild lily by a hill road with bamboo or rock is a small subject of summer walks. Do not touch the orange pollen. Against the light the tepals show their veins.
Photographic styles
White trumpets by a hill road; the purple flush in profile.
Similar species
Easter lily (pure white, no flush, Ryukyus and Taiwan); Taiwan lily (clearer purple-red stripes); tiger lily (orange, recurved).
Related badge
None yet. No validated photo recognition exists for this species, so no badge is tied to it: a name in the encyclopedia is not evidence in a photograph.
The illustration is original FilmAnalysis artwork. The photograph is from Wikimedia Commons; its licence and author are under it.
Why it is listed: this species comes from the Flower checklist (GBIF backbone and Wikidata verified). Names follow the GBIF backbone and Wikidata; the facts follow the sources below; photo recognition is not offered.
