Stephen wrote > It was interesting to see so many scales on this species. Lilium pardalinum has a rather unusual bulb that, when mature and allowed to do so, becomes quite elongated with many loose scales. This may be an adaptation to its typical habitat on streamsides, where floods would dislodge the bulbs and spread the scales downstream. It may also, as in the case of some other California bulbous plants, be an adaptation to predation by burrowing animals, which would eat the main bulb but (the plant hopes) miss some of the loose scales that would become buried in the disturbed soil. California has a number of "rice grain" Fritillaria species, and some of the Themidaceae (Brodiaea, etc.) also produce numerous small offsets. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA