For the past eight years or so, I have had a relationship with a plant on a foothill trail near my home. From early spring to midsummer, my anticipation builds as I pound down the steep hill, past the beehive in the trunk of an old oak, and round the corner to see how the plant is faring. By late spring, it will be taller than I am. Soon, it will sprout buds. Some years it might have as many as a dozen showy fist-sized flowers. If it’s not blooming, though, it can be easy to miss. It is not far from the trail, in an area where it could easily be trampled by a hiker or a frolicking dog. This object of my affection is a Humboldt lily, a hearty California native plant that is listed as “moderately threatened” by the California Native Plant Society, largely due to development and people digging up bulbs for domestic use.
By the time you read this, the Humboldt lily will likely have finished blooming; the tall main stem will die back and the plant will go dormant until the following spring. I know this lily has other admirers, because I have seen carefully placed branches around its base to deter unknowing passersby from damaging it. It pleases me to know that there is a community gathered around this one plant, watching it go through its spectacular lifecycle and caring about its well-being. Visiting the lily not only fills me with awe — who would not feel awe in the presence of an 8-foot blooming wonder? — it also renews my faith in humanity. The fact that we are capable of caring this much for a single plant on national forest land less than a mile from the trailhead gives me hope.
One extraordinary thing about this magazine and its own community of readers is that many of you likely have similar relationships with a particular species or place or landscape. Perhaps you have volunteered to help preserve habitat or propagate seedlings or rescue injured wildlife. There is a long list of ways humans can honor and care for the world around us, bask in its magnificence and try to do our part to preserve its integrity. This issue contains a story about another endangered plant, a rare orchid that is native to desert wetlands in Arizona, and the biologists who are working to help a foundering population gain a foothold in a rugged environment. It’s a science story, yes, but it is also a story of love, as so many of the best stories are.
We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the July 2026 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Bloom.”
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
