📍 Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina 🗓 Date: September 20, 2025 🐾 Media: Image 🌿 Species: Red Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata) 📝 Notes: Striking bulb-forming perennial commonly found in gardens, cemeteries, roadsides, and disturbed grassy habitats across East Asia and widely cultivated in other regions. Produces vivid crimson-red flowers with long curling stamens and narrow reflexed petals, typically appearing on bare stems before the leaves emerge.
Blooms primarily in late summer to early autumn, often following heavy rains or seasonal weather changes. Strap-like foliage develops after flowering and persists through cooler months before dying back in spring. All parts of the plant, especially the bulbs, contain toxic alkaloids that can be harmful if ingested by humans or animals.
🔗 iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/315706799