Plant of the day: large-flowered star tulip

Here is another mariposa lily, this one seen in a low moist meadow near Bon Tempe lake. Calochortus uniflorus, or the large-flowered star tulip. You can tell it from the Oakland star tulip (which I wrote about last week) because it grows in wet meadows instead of on rocky slopes or damp hillsides. Both flowers have delicate, lightly hairy petals. Though the coloring can overlap, the large-flowered star tulip trends more towards purple while the Oakland star tulip is in the white to pale lavender range.