The first of the Chocolate Lilies is in flower!  We had them last year, but that was before I developed an interest in native flowers. So I really didn’t take much notice of them until we were cleaning up the land for the Summer period.  In the process, a few were mown down.  I took them back to the house and decided to find out what they were.  This was my first effort at plant identification and it is probably why I felt so elated to see them growing this year.

Walking around the block yesterday, I could see many lily buds, so there are plenty more to come. I’m hoping that some of these will be Vanilla lilies, but I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Even now, the identification of the Chocolate Lily has not been straight forward.  The botanical name seems to have changed from  Dichopogon strictus to Arthropodium strictum, and the various field guides I have checked use one or the other, but not both of these names. Also, some have different sub-species listed.  Some of the sub-species have a yellow based stamens as well as the purple anthers.  There is no trace of yellow on the flowers I found, and two of the fields guides have images which show only purple stamens and anthers – this seems to confirm my initial certainty that these are Chocolate Lily flowers.

Enjoy the photos.