gray’s lily | Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog

This past June I spent several days photographing wildflowers in the mountains of North Carolina. One of the flowers I was really hoping to find was a Gray’s Lily. Gray’s Lilies are one of the rarer wild lilies – growing in just a few areas of the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. I was so excited to spot a few Gray’s Lilies along the side of the road in the Pisgah National Forest. I think this photograph will group nicely with some of my other wild lily photographs such as Turk’s Cap Lily and Canada Lily. There are still a couple of types of wild lilies native to the mountains of North Carolina that I haven’t had the opportunity to photograph – I’m hoping to find some of them next year.

This photograph is available as an 8X12″ gallery-wrapped canvas. You can order Gray’s Lily from my website and I will have it available at shows this year.

Gray’s Lily – Lilium grayi

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jun 30, 2010 | Flowers, Liliaceae Family, Wildflowers

One of the highlights of my recent trip to North Carolina was finding and photographing some Gray’s Lilies (Lilium grayi). Found in only three states (Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia), they are listed as endangered in Tennessee and threatened in North Carolina.

My plans for the trip including a hike on the Tanawha Trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway – it is one places where the Gray’s Lilies have been found and late June is one of the times you can find them. Since I knew they might be blooming, throughout my trip I was keeping an eye out along the sides of the road and trails for orange/red lilies – just in case I spotted one elsewhere. You can imagine my surprise as I was driving through the Pisgah National Forest from Carver’s Gap to Rhododendron Gardens to spot a flash of orange out of the corner of my eye. I circled back – just in case – since I knew the Gray’s Lilies are native to the Roan Mountain area. And there on the side of the road – were five separate Gray’s Lilies. Only two were in bloom – the others were not yet blooming but probably would be in just a few days after I saw them. I had a wonderful time photographing the Gray’s Lilies.

Gray’s Lilies generally grow to about 3 feet tall – although they have been known to grow as tall as 8 feet. Each plant has whorls of 4-8 leaves and between 1 -4 nodding flowers. The orange/red flowers with puprle spots flowers are bell-shaped. The petals neither open out like the petals of the Canada Lily nor curve back like the petals of the Turk’s Cap Lily. They bloom in June and July.

Gray’s Lilies grow on the mountain balds of Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. They need the full sunlight and higher elevations provided in these locations. Their survival is threatened by habitat destruction, over collection, grazing animals and several types of fungal infections. As a state and federally listed species, the Gray’s Lilies should never be dug up from protected areas.

Finding the Gray’s Lilies in the Pisgah National Forest was a wonderful treat. I enjoyed photographing them – and since I didn’t find any on the trail I’d hoped to find them on later in the trip – I was especially glad to have gone back to figure out exactly what that flash of orange I spotted was in the National Forest.

If you’d like to learn more about Gray’s Lilies – some online sites with additional information include

USDA Plant Profile for Gray’s Lily

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Plant Database: Gray’s Lily

USDA GRIN Taxonomy for Plants: Gray’s Lily

Flora of North America: Lilium Grayi

CPC National Plant Collection: Gray’s Lily

North Carolina Wildflowers – June 2010 Trip – Part 2

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jun 26, 2010 | Flowers, Photo Locations, Wildflowers

Here are a few more photos from my trip to North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had a wonderful trip and am already to head back to the mountains and look for more wildflowers to photograph.

Catawba Rhododendron – Rhododendron catawbiense – photographed at Rhododendron Gardens on Roan Mountain

False Bugbane – trautvetteria caroliniensis – photographed on Roan Mountain

Gray’s Lily – lilium grayi – photographed on Roan Mountain

Spotted Wintergreen – chimaphila maculata – photographed on the trail to Linville Falls

Galax – galax utceolata – photographed along the Tanawha Trail just under the Linn Cove Viaduct

And finally Linville Falls from Erwin’s View. Bill and I had photographed Linville Falls from the other overlooks, but had never made it to Erwin’s View. It’s now my favorite spot to photograph Linville Falls from – next time I’ll just make sure I’m not there in the middle of the day.

I only spent a few days photographing on this trip – but what time I had on the Blue Ridge Parkway was wonderful.