The Turk's Cap lilies have just started to put on their annual show-stopping display, and, as always, these natives are completely mesmerizing. This is the view from the driveway, but there are plenty of the early August flowers to be seen in the more open areas along numerous pathways. According to the plant database at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, Lilium superbum is "the largest and most spectacular of the native Lilies; up to 40 flowers have been recorded on a single plant." Mine aren't nearly that floriferous, but that's OK. The site goes on to say that the distinctively recurved sepals and petals "resemble a type of cap worn by the early Turks," hence the common name. The plants might earlier have been called "soup plant," since Native Americans apparently used the bulbs for soup-making. Maybe L. superbum was more plentiful in older times; I'd never dig one up for the soup pot these days.