Pale Vanilla Lily

~ Arthropodium milleflorum ~

ASPARAGACEAE

The Pale Vanilla Lily will fill your nostrils with its sweet vanilla nectar in the warmth of the midday sun. Arthropodium milleflorum, a staple food within First Nation communities, comes from the asparagus family and both its tuber and flower are edible. It flirts with the Native Hoverfly and the Native Soldier Beetle, who can be useful pollinators and help control pests. The Lily is an auspicious garden companion with its abundant flowering, edibility and beacons for attracting helpful insects.

WHERE TO LOOK

The Vanilla Lily can be found through the temperate and alpine zones of the east, including lutruwita (Tasmania), South Australia and up the east coast past Meanjin (Brisbane). It will be found adorning grasslands, woodlands and Eucalypt forests.

Locations → NSW: Cathedral Rock National Park, Snowy River in Kosciuszko National Park, Mimosa Rocks National Park and Blue Mountains National Park; Victoria: Mount Buffalo National Park and Mornington Peninsula National Park; Tasmania: Latrobe.

FEATURES

The Vanilla Lily grows 30–120cm and features grass-like leaves in clumps of up to 17 per plant. The leaves are bluish-green and grow up to 60cm long. The Lily’s flowers dangle like cute packages lined up along long, arching stems that can grow up to 1m. The flowers can be lilac, pink, white or sometimes pale blue and are around 2cm tall. Their bearded stamens are a highlighted feature of the Vanilla Lily, presenting and pendulating with its petals being blown up to reveal its puffy bloomers. The plant grows small, plump, edible tubers at the end of its roots and its fruit is in the form of a three-chambered papery package that contains tiny black seeds.

FLOWERING SEASON

Spring to summer → This perennial herb flowers between September and February, with fruit popping up in December and March. Plants die down to the tuber after flowering.

TRADITIONAL USES

The tubers, raw or cooked, are known to be an important food source for First Nations People along the east coast of the country. The flowers are also edible and may have acted as a sign to hunters that game (such as bandicoots) would be active in the area, snacking on the tubers.

PLANTING

Plants may be propagated from seed before they are shed from their fruit or by dividing the tubers and replanting. Vanilla Lilies are relatively low maintenance and hardy, needing little water once established, and can exist in most soil types and in full sun or shade.