July 03, 2006 One of the hallmark plants of UBC Botanical Garden, giant Himalayan lily can grow up to 4m tall (see the interpretative sign). I haven't seen a plant reach that height yet in six years, but the plants in the garden frequently exceed 2.5m. However, a dried stalk just shy of 4m leans against the wall in a stairwell of the garden's research / admin building. I imagine a place will be found to exhibit it one day. For more photographs of Cardiocrinum, see this thread on the garden's discussion forums. And yes, the flowers are sweetly-scented (one doesn't even have to bend over to inhale!). My opinion is that they have a hint of a rootbeer fragrance. Ecology / photography resource link: From the Griffith University Library in Australia, the Len Webb Ecological Images Collection. Collections such as these are quite valuable �?ecological phenomena (I think) are underrepresented in photography, possibly because of the requirement to understand what is occurring ecologically before being able to represent it with an image. Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |