Kamchatka Lily

Did you know

• Also called the chocolate lily, its near-black flowers have a distinctive musky chocolate scent.
• Indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest traditionally harvested and ate its starchy rice-like bulblets.
• It is one of the few true lilies that can thrive in boggy, acidic soils where most bulbs would rot.
• The plant was an important food source for the Ainu people of Japan, who called it 'kuroyuri.'
• Bears in Alaska are known to dig up and eat the bulbs, earning the plant the nickname 'bear lily' in some regions.

Color meanings

Uses

• ornamental garden
• traditional food source
• woodland planting
• native plant restoration