Margaret Armstrong - Field Book of Western Wild Flowers

Grass Nuts.

Blue Dicks.

Covena.

Brodiaèa capitàta

Blue, violet

Spring

California

All through the spring these lovely flowers grow abundantly all over the hills and fields of California. The slender stalks vary from a few inches to two feet tall. The flowers are usually purplish-blue, but vary from deep-violet to white and are rather translucent in texture. They measure over half an inch across and grow in a cluster of seven or eight flowers, with several membranous, purplish bracts at the base. There are six anthers. The three inner stamens are winged and form a crown in the throat of the flower-tube. These Brodiaeas last a long time in water and are great favorites everywhere. The little bulbs are edible and give the name of Grass Nuts. There are several other names, such as Cluster Lily and Hog-onion. The name Wild Hyacinth is poor, as it does not resemble a hyacinth in character. B. capitàta var. pauciflòra of Arizona is similar, except that the bracts are white. Covena is the Arizona name.

Ookow

Brodiaèa congésta

Blue, violet

Spring, summer

Wash., Oreg., Cal.

Much like the last, except that only three of the stamens have anthers and the stem is sometimes as much as five feet tall. This grows on open hills in the Coast Ranges.

Covena – Brodiaea capitata var. pauciflora.

Ookow – Brodiaea congesta.

Harvest Brodiaea

Brodiaèa grandiflòra (Hookera coronaria)

Blue

Summer

Cal., Oreg., Wash.

In early June, at the time of the hay harvest, these handsome flowers, which look like clusters of little blue lilies, begin to appear among the dried grass of the hillsides and in open places in the woods. They vary in height from a few inches to over a foot and the number of flowers in a cluster also varies very much. Sometimes there are as many as ten of the beautiful blossoms, an inch or more long, with pedicels unequal in length and from one to four inches long, in a large cluster at the top of the stalk, with several, whitish, papery bracts at the base of the cluster. The color of the flowers is usually a deep bright blue shading to violet and the six divisions grow paler toward the base and have a brown stripe on the outside; the buds are greenish, striped with brown. The stamens are translucent white, three ordinary stamens, with long erect anthers, alternating with three without anthers, the latter tongue-shaped and petal-like. The leaves, which are thickish and about the same length as the stalk, have withered away before the flowers bloom. This plant very much resembles Ithuriel's Spear, Triteleia laxa , but three of the stamens are without anthers and the ovary is not on a long stalk. It is the commonest kind around San Francisco. B. minor is much the same, but a smaller plant with fewer and smaller flowers. The three outer divisions are narrow, with pointed tips, and the inner blunt and broad, and the sterile stamens are notched and longer than the fertile ones. This grows on dry hills and plains in middle and southern California.

Brodiaea minor.

Harvest Brodiaea – B. grandiflora.

Twining Brodiaea

Brodiaèa volùbilis.

( Stropholirion Californicum )

Pink

Summer

California

This is a strange, rather grotesque-looking plant, with its slightly roughish, leafless, reddish stem contorted into curious curves, occasionally quite short but usually enormously long, sometimes as much as eight feet, and twining awkwardly in a snake-like way around and over the bushes in its neighborhood. There are sometimes a few long narrow leaves lying on the ground, but when the flower blooms they usually seem to have withered away. The flower-cluster is quite compact, sometimes six inches across, comprising from eighteen to twenty flowers, with several, large, pink, papery bracts. The flowers are rather pretty, dull pink outside but paler inside, the buds are deeper and more purplish pink, both of dry papery texture. The flowers are over half an inch across, their tubes and buds are six-angled, and they have three stamens with anthers and wings, alternating with three, notched, petal-like stamens, without anthers. In the spring the stem grows rapidly for several weeks and then the flower cluster begins to come out at the tip. If the stem is broken off the flower comes out just the same and the stem keeps on growing, even if it is brought into the house. These curious plants are found in the foothills of the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada Mountains and may be seen in open sunny places along the stage route from Yosemite to Wawona. In the woods near Wawona I saw it twining around a very tall white larkspur and the combination was exceedingly pretty. The capsule is egg-shaped and pointed, the seeds black and angled.

Twining Brodiaea – Brodiaea volubilis.

There are four kinds of Bloomeria, all Californian, resembling Brodiaea, but the stamens unlike. They have a fibrous-coated, solid bulb, long narrow leaves, and a bracted cluster of many flowers, at the top of a tall flower-stalk. The flowers are yellow, with six, nearly equal, spreading divisions, the six stamens on the base of the divisions, with slender filaments, which with a microscope are seen to have a short, two-toothed, hairy appendage at base. These are united and form a little cup surrounding the base of the stamens. The style is club-shaped, with a three-lobed stigma. The roundish capsule, beaked with the style, contains several, angular, wrinkled seeds in each cell.

Golden Stars

Bloomèria aùrea

Yellow

Spring, summer

California

In late spring the meadows around Pasadena and other places in the Coast Range are bright with pretty clusters of Golden Stars. The plant is from six to eighteen inches tall, springing from a small bulb, covered with brown fibers, with a long, narrow, grasslike leaf, and a large flower-cluster, sometimes comprising as many as fifty blossoms, at the top of the stalk. The flowers, about an inch across, with pedicels from one and a half to two inches long, are orange-yellow, the spreading divisions each striped with two dark lines, and the anthers are bright green. This looks very much like Golden Brodiaea, but the latter has no cup at the base of the stamens. It grows in the southern part of California and is abundant wherever it is found. B. Clevelandi is much the same, but the flowers are striped with green and the numerous buds are green, so that it is less golden and the general effect is not so good. It has numerous narrow leaves.