Turk's Cap Lily

Turk's Cap Lily (*Lilium superbum*) is the tallest native lily in North America and one of the most spectacular wildflowers of the eastern United States, reaching heights of 4 to 8 feet with multiple nodding, bright orange flowers dramatically spotted with purple-brown and with their petals fully reflexed backward into the shape of a turban or 'Turk's Cap' that gives the plant its evocative common name. Native to the moist meadows, stream edges, and open woodlands of the eastern US from Massachusetts to Florida and westward to Missouri, it has been described by botanists as one of the showiest wildflowers in all of North America.

Each individual flower of Turk's Cap Lily is a masterpiece of botanical engineering. The six orange tepals (three petals and three identical sepals) curl sharply backward, revealing long, projecting stamens tipped with rust-orange pollen. The green star-shaped nectary at the center of the flower is a unique characteristic of this species and is clearly visible when looking up into the nodding bloom. A single plant can carry 10, 20, or even 40 flowers at once on a tall, unbranched stem clothed in whorls of lance-shaped leaves.

Ecologically, Turk's Cap Lily is a hummingbird magnet — its nodding, reflexed shape and vivid orange color are perfectly suited to Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds hovering beneath the pendant flowers to feed, inadvertently picking up pollen on their foreheads. Giant Swallowtail and Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies also visit the flowers. In the natural landscape, large colonies of Turk's Cap Lily blooming along a stream edge or in a moist meadow in July are an unforgettable spectacle, towering above the surrounding vegetation like floral skyscrapers.

For the garden, Turk's Cap Lily thrives in consistently moist soil in full sun to light shade, making it ideal for rain gardens, stream banks, and moist meadow plantings. It grows from scaly bulbs, is completely deer-resistant (deer avoid all native Lilium), and naturalizes reliably when happy. Unlike Asiatic lilies that can harbor the Lily Mosaic Virus, native Lilium are generally more robust in their native range. While harmless to dogs and humans, Turk's Cap Lily — like all true lilies — is fatally toxic to cats and should never be planted in households with indoor-outdoor cats. See our Pet Guard for details.