Fragrant Plantain Lily

Hosta plantaginea is widely cultivated for its fragrant white flowers, which open in late afternoon or evening. This showy species was the first Hosta cultivated in Europe, starting in 1784, and then in the New World. Following its introduction from China, it was planted by the thousands in public gardens and became known as Parisian funkia or hosta.

Widely cultivated as an ornamental.

Plants forming open clumps 60–90 × 45 cm; rhizomes not stoloniferous. Leaves: petiole erect, spreading, light green, to 25 cm; blade light yellowish green, orbiculate to cordate, 20–28 × 15–24 cm, base decurrent, apex acuminate; veins in 6–9 lateral pairs. Scape 60–80 cm. Inflorescences: racemes bright green, 10–15-flowered, stout, solid, to 25 cm; floral bracts large, greenish white, ovate-lanceolate, navicular; sterile bracts leafy, sparse. Flowers to 13 cm, fragrant; perianth long-tubular; tepals white, lobes sharply recurved; anthers yellow. Capsules large, elongate, apex pointed. 2n = 60.

Plants green, glabrous. Rhizome 1.5--2 cm thick, stout. Petiole 20--40 cm; leaf blade ovate-cordate, -orbicular, or ovate, 14--25 × 8--16 cm, glabrous, veins in 6--10 pairs, base cordate, margin slightly undulate, apex abruptly acute. Scape 40--80 cm. Raceme several to more than 10-flowered; bracts 2 subtending each flower, outer one ovate or lanceolate, 2.5--7 × 1--1.5 cm, inner one very small. Flowers solitary or sometimes in clusters of 2 or 3, fragrant; pedicel ca. 1 cm. Perianth white, funnelform, 10--13 cm. Stamens slightly shorter than or subequaling perianth; filaments adnate to perianth tube near base. Capsule cylindric, ca. 6 × 1 cm, 3-angled. Fl. and fr. Aug--Oct. 2 n = 60*.

introduced; Pa., expected elsewhere; se China.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, ?Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, ?Liaoning, ?S Shaanxi (Qin Ling), Sichuan, ?Yunnan, ?Zhejiang.

Flowering late summer (August).

Disturbed open areas; 0--100m.

* Forests, grassy slopes, rocky places; near sea level to 2200 m.

Hemerocallis plantaginea Lamarck in J. Lamarck et al., Encycl. 3: 103. 1789

Hemerocallis plantaginea Lamarck, Encycl. 3: 103. 1789; Hosta plantaginea f. stenantha F. Maekawa.

Hosta plantaginea, the fragrant plantain lily or August lily, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to southeast and south-central China, and a garden escapee in scattered locations worldwide. It and cultivars and hybrids derived from it are the only fragrant hostas. As a wild plant it is typically found growing in the herb layer of mountain forests, below 2000 m.