Manfreda undulata 'Chocolate Chips' is blooming here in Maryland today. For such a comparatively small plant ( the rosette of foliage is only about a foot across, if that), the inflorescence is a big deal! It's not quite five feet high. The individual flowers are a real surprise: before this plant bloomed, I had seen only M. virginica in bloom (its flowers are nothing to brag about). What makes the flowers of 'Chocolate Chips' so interesting is the length of the filaments of the anthers. These are about four inches long, so each flower is surrounded by a ring about six or more inched in diameter of anthers. With several flowers open at once, the inflorescence occupies the space of a soccer ball or basketball: very cool! Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.021954º North, 77.052102º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ <http://www.jimmckenney.com/> BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org /<http://www.pvcnargs.org/> Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/ <http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/>