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Liliaceae FAMILY

Lilium lancifolium

Lilium lancifolium

Edibility
4/5
Medicinal
3/5

Safety & Hazards

The pollen is said to be poisonous, producing vomiting, drowsiness and purging[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitBulb
Growth—

Lilium lancifolium is a very cold-hardy plant, able to tolerate temperatures down to around -30°c when fully dormant[2]. Prefers an open free-draining humus-rich loamy soil with its roots in the shade and its head in the sun[2]. Prefers a lime-free soil according to some reports[3, 4, 5], whilst one says that it succeeds in a calcareous soil[6] and another that it succeeds in ordinary garden soil[6, 7]. Prefers a deep acid loam[4]. Likes a sunny position according to one report[5] whilst others say that it is best grown in open woodland or amongst dwarf evergreen shrubs[6]. Stem rooting, the bulbs should be planted 15 - 20cm deep[5]. Early to mid autumn is the best time to plant out the bulbs in cool temperate areas, in warmer areas they can be planted out as late as late autumn[2]. Plants grow well in northern gardens in Britain[8]. A sterile triploid species, probably of hybrid origin involving Lilium leichtlinii and Lilium maculatum[8]. A very ornamental plant[6], it is cultivated for its edible bulb in China and Japan[9, 7, 10, 11]. This species tolerates virus infections, but it can transmit them to other species in this genus and so is best grown away from any of the other species[4]. The plant should be protected against rabbits and slugs in early spring. If the shoot tip is eaten out the bulb will not grow in that year and will lose vigour[2].

Propagation

Seed - this species is completely sterile and does not produce seed. Division with care in the autumn once the leaves have died down. Replant immediately[2]. Bulb scales can be removed from the bulbs in early autumn. If they are kept in a warm dark place in a bag of moist peat, they will produce bulblets. These bulblets can be potted up and grown on in the greenhouse until they are large enough to plant out[2]. Bulbils - gather in late summer when they start to fall off the stems and pot up immediately. Grow on in a greenhouse until large enough to go outside[2]. Plants can flower in three years from bulbils[1]. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Lilium+lancifolium>

Pollinators

Bees

References

  1. [1]A Modern Herbal. — Grieve. · Penguin · 1984 · ISBN 0-14-046-440-9 ↩︎Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.
  2. [2]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  3. [3]Plants for Shade. — Knight. F. P. · Royal Horticultural Society. · 1980 · ISBN 0-900629-78-9 ↩︎A small but informative booklet listing plants that can be grown in shady positions with a few cultivation details.
  4. [4]Growing Lilies. — Fox. D. · Croom Helm · 1985 ↩︎A lovely and very readable book dealing with the cultivation of the genus Lilium.
  5. [5]Lilies - Their Culture and Management. — Woodcock. and Coutts. · Country Life · 1935 · ISBN - ↩︎A classic, but dated. Deals with the genus Lilium.
  6. [6]RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 — F. Chittendon. · Oxford University Press · 1951 · ISBN - ↩︎Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaced in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [ 200 ]).
  7. [7]Hardy Bulbs.; Including Half-hardy Bulbs and Tuberous and Fiberous-rooted Plants — Grey. C. H. · Williams & Norgate. · 1938 · ISBN - ↩︎Rather dated now, but an immense work on bulbs for temperate zones and how to grow them. Three large volumes.
  8. [8]Bulbs — Phillips. R. and Rix. M. · Pan Books · 1989 · ISBN 0-330-30253-1 ↩︎Superbly illustrated, it gives brief details on cultivation and native habitat.
  9. [9]Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. — Hedrick. U. P. · Dover Publications · 1972 · ISBN 0-486-20459-6 ↩︎Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
  10. [10]Lilies and Related Plants. — RHS Lily Group. ↩︎Lots of interesting snippets about plants in the family Liliaceae (in the old, broad sense)
  11. [11]Flora of China — Missouri Botanical Garden Press; St. Louis. · 1994 · http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/ ↩︎An excellent, comprehensive resource in 25 volumes. In addition to the botanical information the flora also gives basic information on habitat and some uses. An on-line version is also available.
  12. [12]Medicinal Plants in the Republic of Korea — World Health Organisation, Manila · 1998 · ISBN 92 9061 120 0 ↩︎An excellent book with terse details about the medicinal uses of the plants with references to scientific trials. All plants are described, illustrated and brief details of habitats given.
  13. [13]Tanaka's Cyclopedia of Edible Plants of the World. — Tanaka. T. & Nakao S. · Keigaku Publishing; Tokyo · 1976 · ISBN - ↩︎The most comprehensive list of edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.
  14. [14]Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications · 1990 · ISBN 0-9628087-0-9 ↩︎Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.
  15. [15]Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). — Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. · Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. · 1986 · ISBN - ↩︎Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.
  16. [16]CosIng — http://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/ ↩︎CosIng is the European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients.