2022 was another record year for the Rhodope lilies (Lilium rhodopaeum), counted and monitored by local expert Vladimir Trifonov (Vlado), who is a dedicated conservationist and tour leader of our natural history and botany tours in Bulgaria.

The Rhodope lily (Lilium rhodopaeum) is a very scarce flower of the Western Rhodopes. It’s found on just a handful of sites in Bulgaria and just over the border in Greece, about half of which have no official protection. This year’s numbers are: 613 individual plants, of 356 flowering plants, most (255) had a single bloom, though 76 had two blooms.

A selection of photos from summer 2022 of the Rhodope lily, which our partner Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays helps to protect, can be found in Vlado’s report for 2022 that can be read via http://www.honeyguide.co.uk/news.html or directly on http://www.honeyguide.co.uk/documents/Rhodopelily2022.pdf. Most of these photos by Vlado were taken on 26 June 2022.