CHRISTMAS LILIES

Lilium candidum (popularly known as the Madonna lily, Easter lily and Christmas lily in the Southern Hemisphere) is a plant in the true lily family, Liliaceae. It is native to Greece, the western Balkans and the Middle East, and naturalised in other parts of Europe (France, Italy, Ukraine, etc.) as well as in North Africa, the Canary Islands, Mexico, and other places.

It forms bulbs at ground level, and unlike other lilies, has a basal rosette of leaves through the winter, which die back in summer. A leafy flower stem, typically up to 1.2 metres high, sometimes up to 2 metres high, emerges in late spring and bears sweetly and headily fragrant flowers in summer. Flowers are white, flushed yellow at the base.

It has long been cultivated, but is susceptible to virus diseases of lilies, and to Botrytis fungus. One possible way to avoid problems with viruses is to grow plants raised from seed. This is currently in bloom in our garden, although it is suffering a little from the excessive unseasonable December heat (40˚C today!).

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.