The pictures of Easter Lilies from a few days ago obviously aren’t the big Japanese lilies commonly sold as Easter Lilies; they’re a native plant, found in their native habitat in Lowndes County, Georgia.

Everybody around here recognizes them, and seems to call them either Easter Lilies, or “those lilies you see in the ditch by the road.” Nobody seems to know any other name for them, neither common nor botanic.

So Gretchen and I journeyed two hours south to the strange land of Gainesville, Florida, to attend the Gopher Tortoise Council spring meeting, taking a few samples of “those lilies” in hopes that the assembled botanists and biologists could identify them. And they could! Continue reading →