| Lily Family
White Mariposa Lily May-July Wooded Areas |
Liliaceae
Calochortus venustus "Beautiful grass, referring to flowers and leaves" "Charming" |
One of the most beautiful flowers with an equally pretty name. Mariposa means butterfly in Spanish. The flowers are not always white but are often tinged with purple. Individual flowers may be found colored from pink to maroon and even lavender. The size of the flower varies from almost 3" down to an inch on poor soils. The Native Americans ate the bulbs of this plant but it is unwise to pick or dig up the bulb of this beautiful flower as it takes six years to mature to the first blossom.
The best place to see these flowers is along the roads to Frog Lake and Poverty Flat, the Flat Frog Trail and the Middle Ridge Trail in late May or early June.
