About 10 years ago, I first learned that we had native Fritillaria, specifically F. biflora (Chocolate Lily). Although I don’t think I had ever seen one in the wild, local native plant expert Edmond Piffard shared some photos of them in Mission Trails Regional Park after a particularly rainy February. I reached out to him for the location, and he made me promise not to share it before he would disclose it to me. Following his trail directions, we discovered a few plants among the non-native grasses and shooting stars, Primula clevelandii var. clevelandii.
Calfora website description :
Fritillaria biflora (Chocolate Lily) is a species in the Liliaceae (Lily) family that is endemic to California and northern Baja. It is found along the coast from Montery County south. Fritillaria biflora is called “Chocolate Lily” because its bell-shaped flowers resemble the color of chocolate.
Fast forward to January 2025, and people began sharing photos on the California Native Plants group on Facebook in mid-January. This was about a month earlier than their usual blooming time, likely due to the heavy rains in November and December followed by relatively warm weather. In the comments, someone shared the GPS location, which I saved on my phone.
Seeking a hike on Sunday, February first, Scott and I decided to search for them. We hiked mostly up some very steep, unpaved fire roads for over 2 miles. It was a very sunny, dry, and warm day for this time of year. Towards the end, we finally had a bit of downhill when my phone indicated “arrived.” As I anticipated, they were no longer in bloom, having been eaten, picked, or starting to set seed.
We then headed back to our car via a different route. The park was very green with lots of mostly non-native grasses, but not many wildflowers. Hopefully, this will change with more rain and longer days. We decided to try and find the spot where we had seen them almost a decade ago. Scott has the Seek app on his iPhone, and it showed they had been observed in the same area where we saw them years ago.
Along the trail, we found one plant in full bloom. Chocolate lilies are very rare and scattered over a wide area, so finding any requires some luck, modern technology, and Scott’s help. They are bulbs and are known to be very difficult to cultivate. It also noted that in our many dry winters, they rarely bloom and, if they do, have smaller flowers.
We managed to find one more plant with a single flower before returning to our car.
