Greetings from Grants Pass, OR! I am in my third week as a CLM intern working here for the BLM. The main objective of my internship is rare plant monitoring, and the federally listed Endangered plant species we are monitoring now is the beautiful lily Fritillaria gentneri (Gentner’s lily). My fellow intern, Lillie, and I have been revisiting sites where F. gentneri has been found in the past and trying to find new flowering plants.

So far, we have only found a handful of naturally occurring Fritillaria gentneri plants. The Oregon Department of Agriculture has been out-planting F. gentneri bulbs at some sites, and those sites typically have several flowering Gentner’s lily plants, but we don’t include those plants in our count. We have also seen plenty of Fritillaria basal leaves, but those leaves might belong to one of the lookalike species of either Fritillaria affinis or Fritillaria recurva.

Lillie and I have been having a grand ol’ time in our scavenger hunt for this elusive lily. Our search often takes us to very scenic locations, and allows us to explore areas of Southwestern Oregon unseen by many. I’m excited for all this internship has in store!

-Kiki

Grants Pass Interagency Office, BLM