Pack of Four

Pack of Four
Nightmare, Gabbi, Arme & Kilo

Jul 21, 2011

The sagebush Mariposa Lily

 I generally hike regularly with my dogs! One of the highlights for me is to see the Sagebush Mariposa Lily.








This lily is a perennial plant from a bulb about the size of a walnut. The plant has grass like leaves and usually one flower which is showy with three petals. It enjoys grassy slopes and can stand a hot climate. The bulb are palatable and nutritious when boiled, roasted or steamed.

This gives me hope that I might be able to transplant a couple of these beauties!

The following information was retrieved from :
http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/potd/2005/06/calochortus_mac.php

In the book Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia, the authors point out that “mariposa” means butterfly in Spanish. You can likely see the resemblance.  Unfortunately, the authors also point out that Calochortus macrocarpus is a tasty plant for cattle, one of the reasons it is now quite uncommon. To whit:
Sagebrush mariposa lily is highly palatable to livestock and it will disappear from highly grazed areas. This species was once widespread, but it is now considerably less common and harvesting the flowers or bulbs is discouraged because it destroys the entire plant.
Miller, Allen and Antos, in the Canadian Journal of Botany 82(12): 1790-1799 (2004), observed that individual plants of Calochortus macrocarpus can remain dormant (i.e., not emerging above ground during a a growing season) for a period of one to four years (source / abstract: Dormancy and flowering in two mariposa lilies (Calochortus) with contrasting distribution patterns.). 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.