Calochortus kennedyi  Desert Mariposa
PERENNIAL .  Bright lemon to golden yellow cup-shaped flowers have three rounded petals and a purple spotted throat.  Long, smooth, grayish-green straplike leaves may or may not be present.  Flowerstalk to 20 cm, usually shorter, occasionally absent.  Blooms in April-May, followed by green and white striped elliptical seedpods. Abundant on sunny desert grassland slopes and ridges in wet years but may be absent after a dry winter.  The orange-flowered form  is often common elsewhere but is rare in the Empires.
FAMILY:  Liliaceae (Lily Family)