Lilium 'Elodie'

I can remember years ago when the first double-flowered lilies began to appear at the shows. Those of us trained long before as judges would feign surprise and confusion: "How in the world are we to judge such a deformed, monstrous thing? " we would deadpan to one another.

The one shown above is 'Elodie', an Asiatic hybrid. It does look a bit as if it's about to grab, bite or clamp on to something - maybe the unsuspecting nose of someone dipping in to check for fragrance.

If you examine this flower carefully, what you notice is that the filaments of the anthers have become somewhat like petals, narrow petals but with the petal color and even some of the spots. Normal lilies have six anthers, but here there are more than six of these partially converted petals.

And in spite of the somewhat snarky remarks at the beginning of this post, I think I like it. If I think passionflower rather than lily, it's a lot more acceptable.