Tricyrtis hirta, The Hairy Toad Lily

Hello! Today's post features the Tricyrtis hirta, or the hairy toad lily, which has been posted here before. The previous posts did not have much information about this beautiful flower since I could not find much about it, not even on Wikipedia. Over the weekend, I managed to find a detailed write-up of the Tricyrtis formosana that features many wonderful macro-photography views of both the dark and light forms of the formosana species. I highly recommend reading this article if you want to know more about this flower. While the photos below are of the hirta species, the two are virtually identical in appearance.

So why have I decided to give the hairy toad lily it's own post? Well, this flower nearly went by undetected last year as I was walking around my backyard last year. Given its height of approximately 1.5 feet, the 1-inch wide flowers seemed rather insignificant from a far viewing distance. Even after taking some close-up photos of the flower, it did not appear to be anything special to me. That is, until after I downloaded the photos onto my computer.

Upon closer inspection while making adjustments to the photos, I noticed that there were small, golden spheres along the length of the styles. I learned from the article that these are membranous sacs containig a sticky fluid that may be used to attract insects to help pollinate the flower. These orbs are less than 0.02 inches in diameter and virtually invisible to the naked eye. To me, they are the most beautiful part of the hairy toad lily. Why? Well, while the polka-dotted petals and sepals or the tentacle-like forked styles are the more prominent features of the flower and readily visible, these miniscule golden orbs require the observer to spend a little more time to discover them. Once I did so for myself, they soon became the focal point of my hairy toad lily photographs.

Using the information in the article mentioned above, I labeled the preceding photo (reproduced below) to identify the different structures of the hairy toad lily.

While the structures of the hairy toad lily are standard to most flowers, their arrangement and appearance give it an exotic look. Speaking of which, it is my hope that one day I will have the opportunity to photograph the Passiflora, another exotic-looking flower.

 

Since the hairy toad lily grows best in shaded areas away from direct sunlight, it can be a challenge to photograph since lighting conditions tend not to be optimal. Luckily, after spending several hours waiting for the right amount of sunlight on multiple days, fortune smiled upon me, allowing me to capture some photos. Here are some more of my keepers:

Oh, before I forget...what makes the hairy toad lily, well, "hairy"? The answer is that the entire flower is covered in short, fine hairs. The petals, stalk, and leaves are all covered as can be seen in the photo of a bud here (also note the bi-lobed spurs):

Well, this concludes my introduction of the hairy toad lily. They will continue to bloom into October so I will most likley be taking more photographs of them in the near future.

Of Hairy Toad Lilies

Greetings! My last post was over half a year ago here on my fledgling blog...not sure what happened. I think it might have been a lack of time and I eventually forgot about posting. In any event, here I am again.

Today, I'd like to share some photos of Tricyrtis hirta, also known as the "hairy toad lily." This year was the first time I saw this flower in my backyard and at first glance, it reminded me of squid (which by the way, are so very delicious!). Here's a photo of a Hawaiian bobtail squid that I found online:

Photo by: William Ormerod/courtesy Margaret McFall-Ngai
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Now here's a photo of the hairy toad lily ("hairy" because nearly all parts of the plant is covered with little hairs):

Pretty close, huh? The squid I had in mind actually had more purplish dots but I didn't know which species of squid of was. Anyway, back to the flower. 

I had taken a good number of photographs of it but had no idea what it was called. Finally, after unsuccessful research by myself (can't wait for the day we can enter a photo as a search parameter!), I posted in the always-informative forums at DP Review and in no time, got an answer. I'm actually still slightly unsure if it is hirta species and not another one like the chinensis. Whichever one it is, I found the flower somewhat mesmerizing. Here are a couple of more photos:

Since this past April, I've taken over 15,000 photographs of various flowers in my backyard with my trusty Panasonic DMC-ZS3. I'll be presenting these photos in future posts so stay tuned!