SAGEBRUSH MARIPOSA
SAGEBRUSH MARIPOSA
GENESIS NAME: Calochortus macrocarpus
DISTRIBUTION: Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to Montana and Nevada.
SEASON: Blooms in June and can also thru summer
MEDICAL USE: Okanagan-Colville - Poultice of mashed bulbs applied to the skin for poison ivy. Bulbs eaten raw or pit cooked with other roots. Roots used as a principle food. Corms formerly cooked and used for food. Sweet flower buds used for food.
POISONOUS: NO
EDIBILITY: Mariposa-lily (Calochortus spp.) Calochortus spp. bulbs are edible raw. bulbs are best when cooked.
FEATURES: Umbels 1-3 flowered; flowers large, lavender to white, erect, each petal with a median green stripe; sepals 3, longer than the petals, narrowly lanceolate, pointed; petals 3, obovate, moderately bearded above the gland; gland triangular-oblong, surrounded with a broad, fringed membrane, and densely covered with slender processes; stamens 6, style tapered, stigma trifid, persistent.
individual plants of Calochortus macrocarpus can remain dormant for a period of one to four years. This seems to be a strategy by the plant to avoid unfavourable environmental conditions in a particular year, allowing it to instead grow within an environmental regime that is more favourable to eventual reproduction.
LEAVES: The leaves are blue-green and grass-like
FRUITS: Capsule linear-lanceolate, 3-angled, pointed.
DISTRIBUTION: Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to Montana and Nevada.
SEASON: Blooms in June and can also thru summer
MEDICAL USE: Okanagan-Colville - Poultice of mashed bulbs applied to the skin for poison ivy. Bulbs eaten raw or pit cooked with other roots. Roots used as a principle food. Corms formerly cooked and used for food. Sweet flower buds used for food.
POISONOUS: NO
EDIBILITY: Mariposa-lily (Calochortus spp.) Calochortus spp. bulbs are edible raw. bulbs are best when cooked.
FEATURES: Umbels 1-3 flowered; flowers large, lavender to white, erect, each petal with a median green stripe; sepals 3, longer than the petals, narrowly lanceolate, pointed; petals 3, obovate, moderately bearded above the gland; gland triangular-oblong, surrounded with a broad, fringed membrane, and densely covered with slender processes; stamens 6, style tapered, stigma trifid, persistent.
individual plants of Calochortus macrocarpus can remain dormant for a period of one to four years. This seems to be a strategy by the plant to avoid unfavourable environmental conditions in a particular year, allowing it to instead grow within an environmental regime that is more favourable to eventual reproduction.
LEAVES: The leaves are blue-green and grass-like
FRUITS: Capsule linear-lanceolate, 3-angled, pointed.
DESCRIPTION:
The flowers of this plant can only be described as stunning! Bob emailed us recently wondering about the plants. He and his family were enchanted with the bloom, found during a family vacation at the Steamboat Rock State Park in Eastern Washington State. This brought a bit of nostalgia for us, along with the delight in a beautiful flower. We enjoyed a family gathering some years back at that same park. This species was one of many collected on the Lewis and Clark expedition. The perennial herb is one of about 70 species in the genus, part of whose name means beautiful grass in Greek. Mariposa, in Spanish, means butterfly. Bob did a good job in showing two differing blossoms from this plant.
