Harvest Brodiaea

The last camas flowers have fallen, their green leaves withered, and the grass around them parched golden under the long day’s sun. All around the Salish Sea the plants of thin soiled sites are preparing for the dry summer by setting seed and retreating to subterranean perennial parts. Visiting one such “bald” on an island at the mouth of the Skagit River, I was surprised by a final flush of color. Amongst camas seed pods, dry moss, and crisp licorice fern fronds were the vital tones of orchid, orobanche, onion, and brodiaea.

 

California Broomrape (Orobanche californica)

Hooker's Onion (Allium acuminatum)

White Brodiaea (Triteleia hyacinthina)

Edible roots grace both onions and brodiaeas, but I was especially keen to have my first taste of brodiaea. Both Harvest Brodiaea (Brodiaea coronaria) and White Brodiaea (Triteleia hyacinthina were present but I failed to bring my digging stick, and the White Brodiaea were too deeply rooted to extricate with my fingernails, so this account is limited to the more shallow rooted and easy to, Harvest Brodiaea.

Harvest Brodiaea (Brodiaea coronaria)

Harvest Brodiaea is an herbaceous perennial that grows from a small spherical to ovate corm ¼ - ½ inch in diameter. Several linear basal leaves emerge early in the spring and a single leafless flowering stalk 2-12 inches tall arises as the soil begins to dry in late spring and the leaves wilt. One to ten flowers are clustered in an umbel that is subtended by the remnants of the papery sheath which protects the embryonic flowers (similar to onion flowers) but ruptures as the flowers mature. Each flower is 1-2 inches long with 6 blue to purple tepals and a greenish white striped tube. Seed capsules filled with black seeds form in the early summer and the seeds are shaken out of the capsules by heavy wind or animals. 

Northern range of Harvest Brodiaea (CPNWH map)

Harvest Brodiaea ranges from southern Vancouver Island to Southern California and has the largest range of the 19 species in its genus (all in Western North America). The Comox valley on Vancouver Island is the northern extent of its range and it is commonly found in prairies and thin soiled rocky balds throughout the islands and mainland region surrounding the Salish Sea. Further from the coast Harvest Brodiaea is less common, but a few populations are found in the Thompson and Fraser River valleys in British Columbia, the rocky slopes of the upper Skagit (Ross Lake) and Thurston County outwash prairies in Washington; the Lower Columbia and Willamette valleys in Oregon host sporadic populations as well. From the Siskiyous southward, Harvest Brodiaea once again becomes more common and can be found in both wet and dry sites including yellow pine forests, riparian wetlands, and grasslands.

At the time of first European contact, the Coast Salish collected Harvest Brodiaea. Captain George Vancouver’s naturalist Archibald Menzies wrote in his May 28, 1792 journal “On the Point near the Ship [Restoration Point, Puget Sound] where…a few families of Indians live in very Mean Huts or Sheds formed of slender Rafters & covered with Mats. Several of the women were digging on the Point which excited my curiosity to know what they were digging for & found it to be a little bulbous root of the liliaceous plant which on searching about for the flower of it I discovered to be a new Genus of the Triandia monogyna [i.e. Brodiaea]. This root with the young shoots of Raspberries & a species of Barnacles formed at this time the chief part of their wretched subsistence (in Pojar and Mackinnon 1994)." However, there is almost no mention of the traditional food value of Harvest Brodiaea among later ethnobotanical studies of the Coast Salish (Turner and Bell 1971) or  Indigenous peoples in British Columbia or Washington. Knowledge of other brodiaea species ranges from vague recollections of use among the Thompson (Turner et al. 1990) and Okanagan (Turner et al. 1980) to precise knowledge and active harvest among some Sahaptin people (Hunn 1990).

A lineup of Harvest Brodiaea corms

Further south, the ethnobotanical knowledge of Harvest Brodiaea is more vivid. In Oregon, several Athabaskan speaking peoples know the plant as 'small camas' due to the similarity in appearance and use (Ethnobotany of Western Oregon). In California, the corms are traditionally eaten by the Atsugewi, Miwok, Pomo, Kashaya, Yurok, Yana, and other Native American groups (Moerman). Research by ethnobotanist Kat Anderson (2005) has shown that traditional techniques of harvesting and tending patches of brodiaea and onions actually increases their abundance. By all accounts, the roots of Harvest Brodiaea are dug in the late spring while flowering and boiled or baked in earth ovens before being eaten.

I boiled a few corms for 10 minutes in unsalted water to give myself an unadulterated taste of the little morsels. They quickly softened and I found their texture and flavor very similar to a boiled potato. The skins were tough and I spit them out. All the remaining roots went into the garden to multiply for future meals.

The genus Brodiaea honors Scottish Botanist James Brodie (1744-1824) and the species epithet coronaria means “used for garlands” in Latin. I can't think of a nicer garnish for my next meal of brodiaea.

References

Anderson, M. Kat 2005. "Tending the Wild, Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources." University of California Press, Berkley CA.

Biota of North American Program (BONAP)- North American Plant Atlas- Brodiaea

Calflora- Brodiaea coronaria

Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria- Brodiaea coronaria

Ethnobotany of Western Oregon- Harvest Lily (Brodiaea coronaria)

Hoover, Robert F. 1939. “A Revision of the Genus Brodiaea.” American Midland Naturalist Vol. 22, No. 3.

Hunn, Eugene 1990. "Nch'i-Wana 'The Big River', Mid-Columbia Indians and Their Land." University of Washington Press, Seattle WA.

Native American Ethnobotany- Brodiaea coronaria

Oregon Flora Project- Brodiaea coronaria

Pojar and MacKinnon 1994. “Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, & Alaska”. Lone Pine, Vancouver BC.

Turner, Nancy J. and Marcus Bell 1971. "The Ethnobotany of the Coast Salish." Economic Botany.

Turner et al. 1990. "Thompson Ethnobotany, Knowledge and Usage of Plants by the Thompson Indians of British Columbia." Royal British Columbia Museum Memoir No. 3.

Turner, Nancy J., Randy Bouchard, and Dorothy I. D. Kennedy. 1980. "Ethnobotany of the Okanagan-Colville Indians of British Columbia and Washington." British Columbia Provincial Museum Occasional Papers Series No. 21.

WTU Herbarium- Brodiaea coronaria

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Yellow Bell

The Methow Valley in north central Washington is a paradise of plants that explodes with color during the short period between the bitter cold winters and the dry dusty summers. For the last several years on mother’s day weekend, Katrina and I have traveled over the Cascade Crest to explore eastside edibles, hunt for morels, and participate in the Sunflower Run. The snowpack on Highway 20 was so deep this year that it took crews until May 8^th to clear the road. Similarly, the wildflowers were delayed in their phenology. I had the pleasure of catching the Yellow Bells (Fritillaria pudica) in bloom for the first time in the Methow Valley, and got my first taste of this delicate but filling root vegetable.

Immature seed capsule

Yellow Bell bulb with bulblets

It is easy to see that Yellow Bell is closely related to two edible lilies found on the west side. Like Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria affinis) and Northern Riceroot (F. camschatcensis), Yellow Bell has a bulbous root that is surrounded by numerous bulblets that resemble grains of rice. These break off easily while being dug by bears, rodents, humans, and other animals, and are an important mechanism of plant regeneration. The large central bulb begins to push up a sprout when the first fall rains moisten forest openings in the pine forests, but this sprout stays far enough below the soil surface to avoid damage from the ensuing bite of winter cold. With a head start on the spring, the plant grows rapidly as soon as the snow has melted and takes advantage of the ample soil moisture to sprout an upright stem with 2-8 sporadically arranged narrow leaves, and 1-3 hanging bell-shaped flowers that emerge yellow and age to a bright orange. The petals blush and fall away quickly after the flowers have been pollinated (hense the species epithet pudica meaning "shy" in Latin) and the stems straighten to produce upright cylindrical seed pods that split into three chambers and disperse flattened seeds.

Yellow Bell grows in shrub-steppe and mixed coniferous forests at low to mid elevations. They can be found east of the Cascade crest from Kamloops Lake in southern British Columbia southward to the Klamath Mountains and Modoc Plateau in northern California. They are also found sporadically throughout the Rocky Mountains south of Kimberly BC to northwest Colorado. The eastward range extends through Montana and a few places in North Dakota.

Yellow Bells are probably a traditional food among all the Native American tribes that share the plant's range. The Nlaka’pamux (Thompson), Shuswap, Syilx (Okanogan), Spokan, Paiute, Blackfoot, and Ute ate the bulbs fresh, steamed, or boiled (Moerman). The Nlaka’pamux and Sylix welcomed the flowers as an early sign of spring, and immediately collected the bulbs (Teit 1930) along with those of Glacier Lily (Erythronium grandiflorum); these roots were often steamed in an earthen pit for 15 minutes and then sun dried on mats for use throughout the rest of the year (Turner et al. 1980; Turner et al. 1990).

Mt. Potato (left) and Yellow Bell (right)

Challenged by my camping companions to produce a wild food meal, I set out with my diggings stick to locate some Yellow Bells. I found them growing abundantly in an open Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir forest with Mountain Potatoes (Claytonia lanceolata). Since they are relatively shallow rooted plants, I was able to dig both species out of the gravelly soil quickly. To ensure future harvests, I replanted the flat rootlet-covered disc at the base of each Yellow Bell bulb as well as all the small bulblets that easily broke from the main bulb. After 45 minutes, I had about 15 Yellow Bell bulbs and 50 Mountain Potato tubers- enough for a meal. Yellow Bell bulbs are the shape of pattypan squash and have a starchy bland flavor when raw. I boiled them with the Mountain Potato tubers, roasted sausage, and some wild rice that I had brought along, and seasoned the broth with freshly harvested Bare-stem Desert Parsley (Lomatium nudicaule) leaves. Cooked, Yellow Bell bulbs are slightly sweeter than raw and have a smoother, corn starch texture. Though I only had time to harvest enough for a single serving, the soup was a hit and everyone got a taste.

A lineup of Yellow Bell bulbs, the one on the left still has the basal disc attached

Yellow Bells have a similar nutrient profile to a potato but have 50 percent more protein, six times as much calcium, and nearly 30 times more iron (Norton et al. 1984). At 64 calories per 100g fresh weight, Yellow Bell bulbs have more caloric value than Common Camas (61 cal/100g) but less than Northern Riceroot (98 cal/100g). Yellow Bells are slightly higher in fat and much higher in calcium but lower in carbohydrates than both Common Camas and Northern Riceroot (Kuhnlein and Turner 1991).

Sources:

Biota of North America Program, North American Vascular Flora, North American Plant Atlas, Fritillaria pudica distribution

Calflora, Taxon Report 3641, Fritillaria pudica

Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, Fritillaria pudica

Kuhnlein, Harriet V. and Nancy J. Turner 1991. “Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples, Nutrition, Botany, and Use.” Food and Nutrition in History and Anthropology, Volume 8, Gordon and Breach Publishers.

Moerman, Dan. “Native American Ethnobotany” University of Michigan Herbarium.

Norton, Helen H., Eugen S. Hunn, C. S. Martinsen, and P. B. Keely 1984. “Vegetable Food Products of the Foraging Economies of the Pacific Northwest.” Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Volume 14, pages 219-228.

Teit, James 1930. “Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians of British Columbia.” Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC.

Turner, Nancy J. Randy Bouchard, and Dorothy Kennedy 1980. “Ethnobotany of the Okanagan-Colville Indians of British Columbia and Washington.” Occasional Paper Series No. 21, British Columbia Provincial Museum, 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.

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