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Calochortus gunnisonii
Calochortus gunnisonii commonly known as Rocky Mountain mariposa or Gunnison mariposa lily is a North American species of flowering plant in the lily family. It is native to the western United States, primarily in the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Washington state (Grant County, northwestern Nebraska (Sioux County) and eastern Idaho (Fremont County).
Calochortus gunnisonii is a bulb-forming perennial with straight stems up to 55 cm tall. Flowers are white to purple with darker purple markings. The three petals have a wide rim above a deeply concave center lined with hairs. Between and behind each broad petal are three narrow, lanceolate, sepals.
Rocky Mountain mariposa is valued by gardeners in the American prairies and intermountain west for the elegance of its deeply cupped flowers with their recurved edges. Though they will successfully bloom and propagate outside their native range, they are closely adapted to the dry conditions of the plains and western mountains. Gardeners in wet climates must take careful precautions against excessive moisture in all seasons, but particularly during the winter. Often a deep layer of gravel 10–15 cm deep will be placed around 6 cm under the bulbs for extra drainage. They require a well draining, but not sandy, fine textured soil without much organic matter. Bulbs are planted 10 cm deep. In a favorable climate they will live as much as 30 years.
White fairy-lantern · Diogenes' lantern · Doubting mariposa lily · Purple fairy-lantern · Pointedtip mariposa lily · Clay mariposa lily · Golden mariposa lily · Calochortus balsensis · Calochortus barbatus · Bruneau mariposa lily · Santa Catalina mariposa lily · Calochortus cernuus
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Calochortus gunnisonii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
