Veratrum californicum, July 22, 2021
Common & scientific name
Corn lily, false hellebore, skunk cabbage, Veratrum californicum
Family
False hellebore, Melanthiaceae
Location
Lincoln Creek Roadl, 10,400’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
We’re masting! Enjoy this year’s incredible displays of hundreds to thousands of corn lilies, standing up to 6 feet tall with their hundreds of flowers, blooming in sync. Corn lilies bloom and seed little in most years—a few a year always, but usually just their elegant, swirling leaf rosetted are out— but in years like this they bloom and seed heavily, in synchrony. This improves their chances of cross-pollination (although they also reproduce through underground shoots, like aspen trees). Scientists at RMBL believe they mast two years after a “cool” summer. So . . . how was summer 2019, temp-wise? (I haven't yet had a chance to look at the data!)