Twining Snakelily

Dichelostemma volubile is distinguishable by its very long, weak, twining scape; small pink flowers; strongly urceolate perianth tube with well-developed saccate angles; and possession of both perianth appendages and true staminodia (sterile stamens) opposite the outer limb segments, as found in most species of Brodiaea. It is confined to a narrow belt in the foothill areas adjacent to the Central Valley, and is known to hybridize with D. multiflorum in Tuolumne County.

Leaves 3–4, 30–70 cm; blade strongly keeled. Scape weak, not self-supporting except distal 10 cm erect, otherwise twining, 40–150 cm, scabrous. Inflorescences umbellate, dense, 6–20-flowered; bracts pinkish, widely ovate, 12–15 mm, apex acute. Flowers horizontal or erect; perianth pink or rarely white, tube globose or urceolate, constricted above ovary, 5–7 mm, with 6 sac-like angles, lobes widely spreading, ascending in fruit, 5–7 mm; perianth appendages 2 per stamen, folded inward toward anthers, hiding them and forming corona, white, narrowly lanceolate, 3–4 mm, apex 2-fid into 2 wings; stamens 3, equal; anthers 3–4 mm; staminodia 3, opposite outer tepals, creamy whitish, linear-oblong, 2.5–3 mm, margins ciliate-dentate, involute, apex usually shallowly notched; ovary sessile or short-stipitate, subglobose, 4–5 mm; style 3–4 mm; pedicel 10–40 mm. 2n = 18, 36.

Calif.

Flowering spring (Apr--early Jun).

Foothill woodlands, chaparral, scrub; 100--1600m.

Macroscapa volubilis Kellogg, Pacific (San Francisco) 3(34): 132. 1854; Brodiaea californica (Torrey) Jepson 1911, not Lindley 1849; B. volubilis (Kellogg) Baker; Dichelostemma californicum (Torrey) Alph. Wood; Hookera volubilis (Kellogg) Jepson; Rupalleya volubilis (Kellogg) Morière; Stropholirion californicum Torrey

Dichelostemma volubile is a species of flowering plant known by the common names twining snakelily and twining brodiaea. This wildflower is endemic to the mountain foothills of California, where it grows in scrub and woodland.

Dichelostemma volubile grows tall, erect, naked stems topped with spherical inflorescences of up to 30 densely packed pink flowers. Each flower is a tube up to a centimeter long with a spreading corolla of six petal-like lobes. The purplish or reddish stems may twine tightly around each other and occasionally other plants.