Erythronium hendersonii

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Erythronium hendersonii

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Liliales
Family:	Liliaceae
Genus:	Erythronium
Species:	E. hendersonii

Binomial name

Erythronium hendersonii
S.Watson

Erythronium hendersonii, Henderson's Fawn Lily, is a member of the Lily family that is endemic to southwest Oregon, and barely reaching into northern California. It can be locally very abundant within its range which is basically restricted to the Rogue River, and Applegate River drainages in Josephine and Jackson counties in Oregon, and barely into northern Siskiyou county in California. It blooms early here, starting in February, with some locations carpeted by E. hendersonii in the thousands in March, where it often blooms with Dodecatheon hendersonii. It blooms at higher elevations through May. It is most abundant in dry, open woodlands of Ponderosa Pine, Garry Oak, and Madrone.

E. hendersonii has a pair of mottled leaves, and its scape can bear up to eleven blossoms, but more commonly 1-4. The flower color is distinctive among all western North American Erythroniums. The color of the recurved tepals varies from a deep velvety purple, to lavender. The base of the tepals is dark purple, and surrounded by a tinge of white or yellow. The stigma is unlobed to shortly three-lobed, and the anthers are purple to brown.

This species is named for Louis F. Henderson, who has been called "The Grand Old Man of Northwest Botany."