What flower looks lilke a Cahaba lily?

Answer 1

Splendor in the Spring Imagine paddling down the Cahaba River in the early morning sunlight as the mist rises off the water. Paddling around a bend, you notice a blanket of white. As you get closer, this blanket transforms into thousands of white Cahaba lilies. This scene is what one could expect to see paddling the Cahaba River in mid-May. The Cahaba Lily (Hymenocallis coronaria) is one of many species found in the Amaryllis family or spider lily family. Spider lilies are found throughout the Southeastern United States. Three species of spider lilies are found in Alabama: the northern spider lily (Hymenocallis occidentalis), Choctaw spider lily (Hymenocallis choctawensis), and the Cahaba lily. All three of these lilies are very similar in appearance and easily mistaken for one another. Location and Habitat The Cahaba lily is also known as the "shoal spider lily," "rocky shoal spider lily," or just "shoal lily" outside of Alabama. The lily grows along small streams and rivers that drain off the Fall Line of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. The Fall Line is the transition from the Appalachian Highlands to the Coastal Plain where the last waterfalls and shoals occur. Cahaba lilies live in specialized habitats; they only occur in open well-lit rocky shoals of streams and rivers. Other requirements the lilies have are swift-moving and well-oxygenated water free of pollution and sediments. The primary pollinator of the lily is a nighttime visitor known as the plebian sphinx moth. The moth is attracted to the lily by the fragrance of the flower and the sugary reward it offers. Once seeds are produced, they drop into the water and sink to the bottom where they are wedged into rock and grow to become new plants. The northern spider lily and the Choctaw spider lily look similar to the Cahaba lily but differ in subtle physical features. The most obvious difference between these lilies and the Cahaba lily is the difference in habitat. The northern spider lily occurs throughout the northern half of the state, where it is most commonly found in alluvial woods along rivers and streams growing in saturated soils or mucky swamps. Northern spider lilies also occur along upland woods mostly along cool wet drainages. Unlike the Cahaba lily, the northern spider lily does not need to be inundated all the time to survive; it is perfectly at home growing in moist soils. The Choctaw spider lily is the southern counterpart to the northern spider lily. This lily is commonly found growing in the mucky areas and alluvial forest of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and other related places in the southern portion of the state. Another difference between Cahaba lilies and northern spider lilies is the blooming period. Northern spider lilies usually bloom in mid to late summer, much later than Cahaba lilies. The Cahaba lilies initiate blooming in mid-May and usually finish by the first of June. Choctaw spider lilies bloom in the spring - as do Cahaba lilies - but they do not grow in rocky shoals.