By researching the history of the particular lilies I’ve decided to grow I’m learning so much about them. I’ve become a lily fanatic in the last couple of years and have found this forum one of the best places to learn. I’m in the process of updating my species lily records and would like to know what country and the year that these lilies were found. Any help would greatly be appreciated.
Lilium auratum var. platyphyllum
Lilium candadense
Lilum cernuum var. album
Lilium columbianum
Lilium lankongense
Lilium leichtlinii
Lilium nepalense
Information needed about species lilies.
Obviously most lilies were "found" long before written records were kept, and certainly before they were named with the very recent botanical latin binomial. The Chinese were eating Lilium davidii long before Elwes named it with botanical latin, for example. They have their own name for it (chuan bai he), that precedes even their written culture.
But if you are asking when it was found and named by western culture, I believe this source http://efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=118558 will give you the earliest known publication of the latin names for Chinese species. And http://efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=118558 for North American species.
In addition, even in western culture naming did not necessarily occur simultaneously with discovery. Sometimes there were "great debates" concerning classification or simply a lag time (even years) for real identification. And just as taxonomists move species from one genus to another now to better reflect plant relationships, the same kind of reclassifications happened in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries too. Consequently, the first naming in western culture is interesting in its own right and useful for archival purposes, but not too important in the big picture, in my opinion.
Regarding countries, I think the aforementioned links will also give you the most up to date distributions of species. For your Japanese species (auratum v plat.), I can scan and dmail you a map if you would like, or just tell you. But the info is at work at the moment.
Rick
Leftwood, thanks for the help, information and the sites, they will prove very useful. I want to thank-you for pointing out the bigger picture. Sometimes novices want to simplify things and not realize how involved things can be. I'm just getting into species lilies, I found that there is nothing as beautiful as what mother nature has created. Once again, thanks.
Debbie