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| Swallowtail Butterfly aren't alone in their affection for Columbia Lilies |
Getting anywhere on a small forest
road is a challenge during this time of the year. With an arm on the
windowsill, an ear cocked for bird calls, and an eye scanning the roadsides for
plants, it is hard to cover much ground- berries must be picked, and gurgling brooks must be explored!
At 3-6 inches below the soil
surface, the bulbs of Columbia Lily are almost impossible to unearth without a
digging stick or trowel. I find the best method for removing them is to clear
away any rocks next to the plant, and dig a hole beside the base of the stem to
a depth of about 6 inches. Then thrust my digging stick into the ground on the side
of the bulb opposite my hole and pry away the intervening soil with the encased
bulb. Once out of the ground, the surrounding soil easily falls away from the
starchy root.
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| A whorl of Columbia Lily leaves |
Mature bulbs range in size from
1-2 inches tall and ¾-1.5 inches wide. They are comprised of a series of long
narrow overlapping scales with white flesh that is covered by a thin skin. Flowering
stalks are 2-5 feet tall, upright, with several whorls of 2-9 leaves. Flowers
hang singly at the end of 2-5 inch long terminal or axillary stalks. Petals range
from yellow to orange with dark spots (hence the name Tiger Lily) and have
straight or recurved petals with showy exerted stamens that attract butterfly
and human probosci alike. Both the common and scientific names refer to the Columbia
River, where the first botanical specimen was collected by explorer/botanist
David Douglas and surgeon/scientist William Fraser Tolmie in 1833.
Though Columbia Lilies are easiest
to spot when they are flowering, they can be harvested throughout the growing
season. The Nlaka'pamux (Thompson)
traditionally harvest the bulbs anytime between May and August, but prefer to
harvest the bulbs after the flowers have wilted (Turner et al. 1990). The
northern Okanagan people traditionally harvest the bulbs in September, the
Lakes Okanagan, in July and August, and the Southern Okananan, in both the
spring and the fall (Turner et al. 1980). Erna Gunther reported that the
Klallam harvest the bulbs in late fall but the Quileute and Quinault gather
Tiger Lily at the same time as Camas (Camassia
spp) [in May and June]; the Skagit collect Columbia Lily bulbs when they
are flowering, or mark the area so that they can find the bulbs later in the
fall when the plants have wilted away; the Skokomish dig them just after they
have finished flowering (Gunther 1945).
Raw bulbs can be eaten immediately
after they are harvested, but they have a bitter flavor. Traditionally, they
are processed by some combination of leaving them to wilt in the sun for a few
days, steaming, soaking, pit cooking, sun drying, and/or storing the bulbs for
several months fresh or cooked before the bulbs are eaten. Though no scientific
analysis has been done on the bitter tasting tannins in Columbia Lilies, I am
willing to bet that the various methods of preparing Columbia Lilies help to
reduce the tannin concentrations and sweeten the carbohydrates. When interviewed
by Nancy Turner (et al 1990), Nlaka'pamux
elder Louie Phillips noted
that Columbia Lily bulbs were much more palatable after they were pit cooked,
and even described the flavor as sweet—“like chocolates.”
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| A small Columbia Lily bulb |
So far my casual experiments support my bitter starch
flavor improvement hypothesis. The raw Columbia Lily bulbs that I have collected
while flowering have all had a faintly sweet flavor with a strongly bitter
after taste. Steamed for 20 minutes, the flavor of the bulbs improved
considerably with a sweetness that was more intense and mild chestnut undertones.
While there was still a bitter aftertaste, it is not nearly so powerful. The one
bulb that I sun-dried for 2 days after I steamed it was even less bitter, but judging
from ethnobotanical accounts, some degree of bitterness will always be present.
The Nooksack name for Columbia Lily, Sxamelixwtsalh
means “bitter on the tongue” (Galloway 2012), and the Nlaka'pamux reported that they are often bitter and therefore used as a
condiment when cooking soups or puddings with a variety of roots, berries and
animal fat or salmon eggs (Turner et al. 1990). I find the texture smooth and starchy like cooked Camas or
damp corn starch and flavor similar to Northern Riceroot (Fritillaria camschatcensis) and Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria affinis).
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| Columbia Lily distribution (CPNWH Data) |
Columbia Lilies require a good
deal of sun and moist, well-drained soil to thrive. They grow in prairies, clear
cuts, roadsides, and avalanche chutes from the lowlands up to subalpine meadows
throughout much of the Pacific Northwest. In British Columbia, these lilies are
found from Prince George southward in the Columbia Mountains and Highlands to
NE Washington, Northern Idaho, and the far NW corner of Montana. They are also
found sporadically on both sides of BC’s Coast Range south of Mt. Waddington
and the southern half of Vancouver Island (south of Sayward Junction). In the
US, Columbia Lilies are found on both slopes of the Cascades, the Olympics, Coast Range (in Oregon) and Siskiyous.
The Skagit specifically targeted areas that had recently burned for
harvesting Columbia Lily bulbs and tilled in the dying foliage of the plants
[and likely the seeds] after they dug the bulbs to ensure future yields
(Gunther 1945). According to Martin Louie, the Colville deliberated managed
areas with fire to increase the abundance of Columbia Lilies; he said the crop
is best two years after a fire (Turner et al. 1980). It is interesting to note
that the Quinault name for Columbia Lily, K'laka’
means “to slash it down” (Gunther 1945), which may also be a reference to the
traditional system of removing trees to enhancing Columbia Lily patches.
Columbia Lily can hybridize with the
closely related Leopard Lily (Lilium
pardalinum ssp. vollmeri) and
Wiggins’ Lily (Lilium pardalinum ssp. wigginsii) where their ranges overlap in
the Siskiyous, or Washington Lily (Lilium
washingtonianum) in northwestern California and Western Oregon. According
to Mary Ike who was interviewed by Schenck and Gifford (1952), Leopard Lily was
the most highly regarded bulb of the Karok.
References:
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria. Search terms "Lilium columbianum" Accessed July 10, 2013.
Galloway, Brent 2012. Unpublished Classified
Word List for the Nooksack ed 6x
Gunther, Erna 1945. Ethnobotany of
Western Washington. University of Washington Press, Seattle WA.
Schenck, Sara M., and E. W.
Gifford 1952. Karok Ethnobotany. Anthropology Records 13(6).
Turner, Nancy J., Randy Bouchard,
Dorothy I. D. Kennedy 1980. Ethnobotany of the Okanagan-Collville Indians of
British Columbia and Washington. British Columbia Provincial Musuem, Occasional
Paper Series No. 21., Victoria BC.
Turner, Nancy J., Laurence C.
Thompson, M. Terry Thompson, and Annie Z. York 1990. Thompson Ethnobotany,
Knowledge and Usage of Plants by the Thompson Indians of British Columbia.
Royal British Columbia Museum, Memoir No. 3, Victoria BC.
Turner, Nancy J. and Marcus A. M.
Bell 1980. The Ethnobotany of the Coast Salish Indians of Vancouver Island. Economic
Botany 25(1).
