Cobra Lily

Ease to Grow: Moderate to challengingDormancy: RequiredNative Range: Serpentine streams of coastal Mts, CA/ORZones: 6-9 (5-10) Darlingtonia californica or the Cobra Lily is in a class by itself among North American pitcher plants. It's tall, twisting lime-green and red tubes form a bulbous hood with numerous large windows. An appendage resembling a forked tongue hangs from the opening on the underside of the hood. Generally a lime-green, it develops a red tint in full sun. The hoods are richly laced with large white areoles (windows). Its traps are the most complex of all pitcher plants. Darlingtonia is clump forming, and with underground stolons, develops a nice colony in time. It grows in serpentine gravel soils along cold, fast running mountain streams in zones 9-6. It often grows in association with the butterwort Pinguicula macroceras nortensis. Darlingtonia struggles in cultivation where its roots are not kept wet and cool (50s°F). Despite this challenge, the Cobra Lily is a curi