Blackberry lily is a summer-blooming perennial from eastern Asia with orange-red flowers freckled with darker spots. It's named for its fall seed pods, which split open to reveal clusters of shiny black seeds that look like blackberries. Grown in US gardens since the 1800s, it sometimes escapes into the wild, and it's also called leopard lily.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A perennial 2–4 ft (60–120 cm) tall that spreads slowly from shallow .
- Leaves
- Sword-shaped leaves, roughly 6–15 in (15–38 cm) long in US gardens, grow in flat fans like a garden iris.
- Flowers
- Six-petaled orange-red flowers about 2 in (5 cm) across, dotted with red spots, appear in clusters at the stem tips. Each flower lasts just one day.
- Flowering time
- July–August
- Fruit
- Yellow-green pods split open in fall to show a tight cluster of glossy black seeds that stay on the stem.
Look-alikes
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Gardens
- Roadsides
- Old homesites
- Rocky open woods
- Range
- Native to eastern Asia, from the Himalayas to the Russian Far East. It arrived in the US in the 19th century and has naturalized widely in the eastern states; in Missouri, for example, it turns up nearly statewide along roadsides, at old homesites, and on rocky glades and bluff edges. It is not considered invasive.
- Preferred conditions
- Full sun to part shade in well-drained soil. Once established it tolerates drought, but soggy soil in winter can kill it.
- Flowering
Flowers Jul–Aug
Flowers Jul–Aug
Growing it
- Care
- Hardy in 5–10. It has few serious pests, though iris borers, slugs, and snails may attack the rhizomes. It attracts butterflies.
- Propagation
- Grow from seed or divide the clumps.
- Toxicity
- It is listed as toxic to dogs, cats, and horses, and contact with the plant can irritate skin.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Long known as Belamcanda chinensis, the only member of its genus, it was moved into the iris genus in 2005 after DNA studies.
- Varieties and forms
- Candy lily (Iris × norrisii) is a garden hybrid between blackberry lily and vesper iris. It grows 2–3 ft (60–90 cm) tall, has saucer-shaped one-day flowers in colors from yellow and red to violet, and its pods also split open to show black seeds.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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