Lilium lancifolium is an Asian species of lily, native to China, Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East. It is widely planted as an ornamental because of its showy orange-and-black flowers, and has become naturalized in numerous scattered locations in eastern North America. It bears the proper common English nametiger lily, but that name has been applied to other species as well.
Distribution
The plant's native range covers the Russian Far East to Japan and Tibet, some provinces in China, and Korea. It also sporadically occurs as garden escape in North America, particularly the eastern United States, and has made incursions into some southern states such as Georgia.
Name
;Latin names Botanists for many years considered L. tigrinum the correct scientific name until it was determined that older name L. lancifolium refers to the same species, and the latter became the accepted name. ;Vernacular names Its common name is tiger lily. Although this name is ambiguous across several species, it is correctly applied to this species alone. The Japanese common name oni-yuri is mostly now used for the L. lancifolium species. The alternate name, tengai-yuri, documented since at least c. 1900, with reference to the double-flowered flowered variety yae-tengai, has recurred in more recent literature. One cultivar of on-yuri noted in 1900s literature is Kentan, which is identical to the Chinese common name, juan dan.
Like other true lilies, the flowers are borne on upright stems that are tall and bear lanceolate leaves long and broad. Lilium lancifolium produces aerial bulblets, known as bulbils, in the leaf axils. These bulbils are uncommon in Lilium species and they produce new plants that are clones of the original plant. Flowers are odorless. Each flower lasts a few days and if pollinated produce capsules with many thin seeds.
Varieties
The names of names considered as varieties at some time are: The Lilium tigrinum flore pleno, the double-flowered variety, had been exported out of Japan by William Bull since 1869.
Cultivation and uses
It is cultivated and wild foraged in Asia for its edible bulbs. The cultivar 'Splendens' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Cat toxicity
A case study of the successful treatment of a cat that ingested this particular species was published 2007.
