Yellow Bells, Yellow Fritillary, Yellow Missionbells: Fritillaria pudica (Synonyms: Lilium pudicum, Ochrocodon pudicus)

Yellow bells are a delightful wildflower consisting of a single stem arising from a small bulb consisting of several fleshy scales and several to many rice-grainlike offset bulblets. The stems may be as much as 35 cm tall. The leaves are either two and subopposite or three and alternate to somewhat whorled. Some plants may have as many as 8 leaves, wth the upper ones reduced in size upwards. The leaves are long, linear or linear-oblanceolate. They are green and may be up to 16 cm long and 3 to 12 mm wide.

A solitary flower (occasionally two may be found), is found atop the stem, which turns down so that the flower hangs down in bloom, and the seed capsule then turns upwards as it readies itself. Six yellow tepals may be found, often with purplish or brownish streaks near the base of each tepal. As they age, the tepals turn red or purple. Individual tepals are oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate in shape and 12-26 mm long and from 4-10 mm wide with rounded tips. The seed capsule (seen at right) is short and oblong in outline, measuring from 15-20 mm long.

Yellow bells make delightful perennial wildflowers for the front of a rock garden or dry, east-side prairie garden. Plants may occasionally be seen for sale by wildflower nurseries. Wild plants should not be collected as they have only a small chance of survival when transplanted in the garden (usually put in the wrong place, plus wild collected plants often suffer damage during the collection process)..

Yellow Bells may be found in grasslands, scattered among sagebrush, or on the needled ground beneath Ponderosa Pines or in mixed coniferous forests. They are one of the first wildflowers to bloom in the spring.

The range of Yellow Bells is from British Columbia southward through Oregon and Washington (east of the Cascade crest) to northern California. It is found eastward to Alberta, and southward through Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada.

The photo at left shows yellow bells as seen near the summit of Selah Butte, several miles northeast of Selah Washington........March 28, 2007. The photo at right shows an early blooming yellow bells on the steep slope high above to the west of the Cottonwood Canyon State Park.........February 22, 2015.

This photo shows a close-up of yellow bells as seen on moist soils (where the snow has just melted) at Buckhorn Lookout on the western edge of the Imnaha Canyon in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.......June 27, 2008. The photo at right shows yellow bells as seen along the Round Mountain South Trail #805 about a mile north of the south trailhead atFS Road # 42, Ochoco National Forest.........May 28, 2016. The burnt orange flower indicates the flower is aging after it has been pollinated.

Close-ups of yellow bells as seen along Reecer Creek Road near its junction with forest road #3521, Wenatchee National Forest.......June 5, 2009.

The photo at left shows the erect seed pod of the yellow bells. Photographed in the Simcoe Mts. to the northwest of Satus Pass in south-central Washington.......June 16, 2007. The photo at right shows yellow bells as seen on balds along Forest Road 2630 about half a mile above Scotts Campground, Ochoco National Forest........May 10, 2017.

Yellow bells blooming (left) along the Skyline Trail at the east end of the Strawberry Mountains..........May 28, 2014. The photo at center shows yellow bells beginning to bloom along the Line Butte Trail #807 about a half mile uphill from the Fawn Creek Trailhead, south side of Lookout Mountain, Ochoco National Forest..........May 22, 2017. The photo at right shows yellow bells blooming near a snow bank above the Pine Mountain Observatory, Deschutes National Forest......May 12, 2018.

The photo at left shows the seed pods of yellow bells as found on weed-infested sand dunes atop the White Bluffs, Hanford Reach National Monument...........April 26, 2014. The photo at cenyer shows yellow bells blooming on Klickitat Wildlife Area lands on Bickleton Ridge to the northwest of Bickleton, WA........May 7, 2017. The photo at right shows yellow bells in bloom under conifers along the Baneberry Trail on the north side of Lookout Mountain, Ochoco National Forest.......May 24, 2018. There were still snow patches under the conifers near this latter site.

A late-blooming yellow bell on vernally moist soils (as seen at left) at the northeastern base of Spanish Peak, Ochoco National Forest.......June 17, 2019. The photo at right shows maturing fruits of two yellow bells as seen on Bethel Ridge, Oak Creek Wildlife Area, Yakima County, WA......June 8, 2019.