Bitterroot

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Lewisia rediviva var. rediviva in Wenas Wildlife Area, Washington
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Scientific classification Edit this classification
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Varieties[1]

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Bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva) is a small perennial herb in the family Montiaceae. Its specific epithet Script error: No such module "Lang". ("revived, reborn") refers to its ability to regenerate from dry and seemingly dead roots.[5]

The genus Lewisia was moved in 2009 from the purslane family (Portulacaceae) with adoption of the APG III system, to the family Montiaceae.

Description

File:Bitterroot.jpg
Bitterroot flower

Lewisia rediviva is a low-growing perennial plant with a fleshy taproot and a simple or branched base and a low rosette of thick fleshy linear leaves with blunt tips. The leaves are roughly circular in cross section, sometimes somewhat flattened on the adaxial (top) surface. The absence of an adaxial groove on the leaves distinguishes this from other Lewisia species with overlapping ranges. The leaves often wither before flowers open.

The very short flower stems are leafless, Page Template:Fraction/styles.css has no content.1–3 centimetres (3⁄8–1+1⁄8 in) tall, bearing at the tip a whorl of 5–6 linear bracts which are 5–10 mm long. A single proportionally huge flower appears on each stem with 5–9 oval-shaped sepals and many petals.[6] Each flower has between ten and nineteen petals that measure Page Template:Fraction/styles.css has no content.15 to 35 millimetres (5⁄8 to 1+3⁄8 in) long.[7] They range in color from whitish to deep pink or lavender. Flowering occurs from April through July.[8] At maturity, the bitterroot produces egg-shaped capsules with 6–20 nearly round seeds.[6]

Distribution

The plant is native to western North America from low to moderate elevations on grassland, open bushland, forest in dry rocky or gravelly soils. Its range extends from southern British Columbia, through Washington and Oregon west of the Cascade Range to southern California, and east to western Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, northern Colorado and northern Arizona.[8][9][6][10]

Uses

The thick roots come into season in spring[11] and can survive extremely dry conditions. If collected early enough in the season,[12] they can be peeled, boiled, and made into a jelly-like food.[11]

History and culture

French trappers knew the plant as Script error: No such module "Lang". (bitter root).[13] Native American names include spetlum/sp̓eƛ̓m̓ or spetlem ("hand-peeled"), nakamtcu (Ktanxa: Script error: No such module "Lang".),[14] and Script error: No such module "Lang". (Cheyenne, "black medicine").[15]

The roots were consumed by tribes such as the Shoshone and the Flathead Indians as an infrequent delicacy. Traditionally, the Ktunaxa cooked bitterroot with grouse. For the Ktunaxa, bitterroot is eaten with sugar; other tribes prefer eating it with salt.[16] The Lemhi Shoshone believed the small red core found in the upper taproot had special powers, notably being able to stop a bear attack.[13] Plains Indians peeled and boiled the root prior to its consumption.[12] Nlaka'pamux traditional knowledge holds that when saskatoonberry, chokecherry, and arrowleaf balsamroot start blooming, bitterroot is ready to be dug up and harvested.[17]

File:Bitterroot, Lewisia rediviva var. rediviva.jpg
L. rediviva var. rediviva, Glass Mountain, Owens Valley, California
File:Lewisia rediviva iNat-153200132.jpg
Before flowering

Meriwether Lewis ate bitterroot in 1805 and 1806 during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The specimens he brought back were identified and given their scientific name, Lewisia rediviva, by a German-American botanist, Frederick Pursh.[13] Based on Lewis and Clark's manuscript, Pursh labeled it "spatlum"; this apparently was actually a Salishan name for "tobacco".[18]

The bitterroot was selected as the Montana state flower in 1895.[19]

Three major geographic features – the Bitterroot Mountains (running north–south and forming the divide between Idaho and Montana), the Bitterroot Valley, and the Bitterroot River (which flows south–north, terminating in the Clark Fork river in the city of Missoula) – owe the origins of their names to this flower.[13][20]

References

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  1. ^ Template:Cite POWO
  2. ^ Template:Cite POWO
  3. ^ Template:Cite POWO
  4. ^ Template:Cite NatureServe
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.William Curtis (1801). The Curtis's botanical magazine. p. 123. The specific name rediviva is given by Pursh in consequence of the root, long preserved in the herbarium, and apparently dead, having been planted, revived in a garden in Philadelphia.
  6. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Klinkenberg, Brian, ed. (2014). "Lewisia rediviva". E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Plants of British Columbia [eflora.bc.ca]. Lab for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hershkovitz, Mark A.; Hogan, Sean B. (30 July 2020) [In print 2003]. "Lewisia rediviva". Flora of North America. p. 484. ISBN 978-0-19-517389-5. OCLC 177245214. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
  8. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sullivan, Steven. K. (2015). "Lewisia rediviva". Wildflower Search. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Lewisia rediviva". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture; Natural Resources Conservation Service. 2015. Archived from the original on 2013-07-03. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Giblin, David, ed. (2015). "Lewisia rediviva". WTU Herbarium Image Collection. Burke Museum, University of Washington. Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  11. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Angier, Bradford (1974). Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books. p. 36. ISBN 0-8117-0616-8. OCLC 799792.
  12. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Taylor, Ronald J. (1994) [1992]. Sagebrush Country: A Wildflower Sanctuary (rev. ed.). Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Pub. Co. p. 122. ISBN 0-87842-280-3. OCLC 25708726.
  13. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Trivia | BitterrootHeaven.com". Archived from the original on 2012-04-15. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."FirstVoices: Ktunaxa words". Retrieved 2012-07-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  15. ^ Cheyenne Dictionary[permanent dead link] by Fisher, Leman, Pine, Sanchez.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ashley Casimer. "Nutrition: Ktunaxa People and the Traditional Food History". Aqam Community Learning Centre. Archived from the original on 2009-11-12. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Turner, Nancy J.; Reid, Andrea J. (November 2022). ""When the Wild Roses Bloom": Indigenous Knowledge and Environmental Change in Northwestern North America". GeoHealth. 6 (11) e2022GH000612. Bibcode:2022GHeal...6..612T. doi:10.1029/2022GH000612. ISSN 2471-1403. PMC 9665002. PMID 36398276.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bureau of American Ethnology (1910). Handbook of American Indians. p. 624. its supposed name was obtained from Lewis's manuscript by Pursh, who gives it as spatlum (Spatlum Aboriginorum). The name, which is Salishan, is here a misapplication, since spatlûm in the Comox dialect (spätlûm in the Kwantlin) is the name for
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Montana. Dept. of Public Instruction (1929). Montana Educational Directory. p. 30. The Montana state flower, adopted by act of the Legislative Assembly, approved February 27, 1895, is the Bitter Root (Lewisia rediviva).
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.US Forest Service (1909). Names of National Forests with Their Origin, Definition, Or Derivation. Washington. From the plant Lewisia rediviva, which gives name to the Bitter Root mountains and river of Montana and Idaho.

Further reading

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Look up bitterroot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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