Lilium grayi

Lilium grayi is a regional endemic of the southern Appalachian Mountains with 46 extant occurrences with majority of the global population occurring in North Carolina. Recent, significant declines are attributed to lily spot disease and hybridization with Lilium canadense. Continuing threats to the species include habitat alteration, succession, and wild collection.

This species is a southern Appalachian endemic occurring in mountains of northern North Carolina and adjacent Virginia and Tennessee. Reports from Maryland and West Virginia and one from Tennessee are correctly identified as L. canadense var. editorum. The two most important strongholds are the Roan Mountain massif where L. grayi was first found, in Avery and Mitchell Counties, North Carolina, and Carter County, Tennessee, and Long Hope Valley in Ashe and Watauga Counties in North Carolina (Weakley 1993). Since this species has been widely cultivated, some records may represent planted populations (Hardin 1977). The majority of plants are found within North Carolina. Range extent was calculated using extant occurrences only.

Approximately, 46 occurrences range wide. Most are in North Carolina but eight occurrences are in Tennessee and seventeen in Virginia.

The greatest threat to this species is vegetative succession due to hydrologic alteration of habitat and possibly the elimination from the landscape by native grazers and wildfires. Grazing by cattle constitutes a threat on some managed areas such as the Roan Mountain Massif, while lower elevation populations occurring in wet meadows on private land may be threatened by mowing (Pyne, pers. comm.). Declines due to Pseudocercosporella inconspicua, a fungal pathogen causing lily spot leaf are evident (Ingram et al. 2018). Flowering plants have been seen to senesce before seeds mature by several observers (Bucher, pers. comm.) This condition may be aggravated by weather; many flowering plants in Ashe County, North Carolina were observed to set seed in a wet year, but to prematurely senesce during a drought the next summer. Like many other showy species, L. grayi is exploited for commercial and private horticultural use, which may represent a minor threat. (Ludwig, pers. comm.) This species is exploited by unscrupulous wildflower collectors (Southern Appalachian Species Viability Project 2002). Other threats include trampling by hikers, and non-native species (Microstegium vimineum and Rosa multiflora). This species is also threatened by hybridization with Lilium canadense.