Rainlily bud at 10am, Womack Creek campground landing.
Rainlily blossom, almost completely eaten by eastern lubbers by 3:30 pm that same day.
Zephyrantes atamasca
Forb/herb. perennial
Native: lower 48/threatened-FL
Blooming: April, May
Though a threatened species in Florida, this species is apparently easy to cultivate in home landscapes. They are spectacular in mass plantings where there is a very large field of them in the Joe Budd Wildlife Management Area along the Little River, which enters Lake Talquin in Gadsden County, and smaller areas along Crooked River in Tate’s Hell State Forest from the Ocklockonee west to Rocky Landing Campground/boat landing. The Atamasca lilies on Womack Creek were first noticed blooming this year.
The lower photographs show a rain lily which was a bud at 10am one morning at the Womack Creek landing (put-in). When photographed again at take-out at the same location, eastern lubber grasshoppers had made a meal of most of the blooming flower.
