Carniolan Lily or Golden Apple (Lilium carniolicum)

The Carniolan Lily often blazes forth in early summer on green meadows, beside scree and on forest margins. It has velvety orange petals curved backwards and not extended as the majority of its relatives. The leaves on the stem are alternate.

The name tells us that it was christened after the province of Carniola. Its birthplace is not determined exactly, its "godfather" wrote in the professional description that it grows in Carniola and also in Primorska. It is not ours alone, since it occurs from north-eastern Italy to western Bosnia: from the Southern Alps, the Karst, Notranjski Snežnik, the Sava valley, Croatia to Bosnia. However, it is commonest in Slovenia.

A further three species of lily grow in Slovenia, in addition to the most famous, the Carniolan Lily. The Orange Lily (Lilium bulbiferum) has large orange flowers, whose leaves are spread out just as the garden lily. The Latin name derives from the embryonic bulbils from which new young plants develop. The similar Saphron Lily (Lilium croceum), which lacks the bulbils, grows only on Notranjski Snežnik. The commonest is the Turk's Cap or Martagon Lily (Lilium martagon), which has meat red petals curving backwards. Although the Carniolan lily does not smell very pleasant, because of its attractive flowers it still now and then seized by barbarian hands. It has thus been protected since 1947.