The subalpine mariposa lily is a small summer wildflower of the high Cascades, and Mt. Hood sits close to the middle of its narrow range. The species grows only from Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams in Washington south to the Three Sisters in Oregon, so Mt. Hood visitors are well placed to see it. Botanists have photographed it in the rocky meadows just south of Timberline Lodge.
Each plant sends up one flat, grasslike leaf and a short, often wavy stem topped by one to five cup-shaped flowers. Look inside a blossom and you will find a surprise: the creamy petals are covered in fine hairs and fringed along their edges, and many carry a thin purple crescent just above a small gland near the base. The plant grows from a deep-seated bulb in loose volcanic soil in open forest. Bees and beetles pollinate the flowers. As the seed pod develops, its stalk bends over and the capsule hangs down, showing three narrow wings.
How to identify it
A small plant 2 to 12 inches tall with a single flat, grasslike leaf from the base about as long as the stem. One to five upright or spreading, cup-shaped flowers have three broad, creamy to yellowish white petals, sometimes tinged lavender, that are hairy inside and fringed at the edges, often with a thin purple crescent above a gland near the base. The three narrower sepals usually have a purple blotch near the base.
Look-alikes
Tolmie's mariposa lily, also called cat's ears, has similar hairy white to purple-tinged petals, but its petals are densely bearded with long hairs, it flowers in late spring, and it ranges down into lowland valleys. Subalpine mariposa lily blooms in summer in open mountain forest.
Habitat
Open forests and rocky meadows in loose volcanic soil at middle to high elevations in the Cascades. On Mt. Hood it has been documented in rocky meadows near Timberline Lodge at about 5,800 to 5,900 feet.
Sightings in the forest
668 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on July 31, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →