There are many kinds of Brodiaea, among the prettiest western flowers.
They have a small, solid bulb, coated with brownish fibers. The stem
bears a bracted, roundish head of flowers at the top, the pedicels
varying in length. Their leaves, all from the root, are grasslike and
soon wither and the flowers dry up, become papery, and remain on the
stalk, sometimes keeping form and color for some time. The stamens
are in two sets and are attached to the flower-tube, their filaments
often winged. Sometimes three of the stamens are without anthers and
their filaments are broadened, so that they look like small petals
alternating with the ordinary stamens.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Illustration: Covena--Brodiaea capitata var. pauciflora.]
[Illustration: Ookow--Brodiaea congesta.]
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Brodiaea minor.