Legend: Dedicated to the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus, the lily was formed after Hera flung Hercules from nursing at her breast (Zeus fathered Hercules with the mortal woman Alceme and brought him to Hera’s breast after he had drugged her to sleep). In more recent history, bulbs were ground and made into porridge by Native Americans and “sego” is a Shoshonean word thought to mean “edible bulb.” The Sego Lily was adopted as the Utah state flower in 1911, in part due to its use as an essential food source by Mormon pioneers of 1848-1849, and it is known in California as the Mariposa Lily, which translates to “butterfly” from Spanish. Pearly Everlasting – Aster/Sunflower Family įact: In Roman times, the juice from lily bulbs was said to cure corns, and common belief held that planting lilies in the garden would protect the garden from ghosts and evil spirits. Rocky Mountain Aster – Aster/Sunflower Family Iris flowers were often placed on the graves of women in honor of the Greek goddess, who was said to lead the souls of women to the Elysian Fields after they died.įrom Left: Arrowleaf Balsamroot – Aster/Sunflower Family Legend: Named for the Greek goddess of the rainbow (presumably for the many different colors of the nearly 1,500 species of iris worldwide), who was the messenger between humans and the gods atop Mount Olympus. Historical uses most commonly include perfumes, as well as a flavoring from the root used in czarist days in Russia for a soft drink, or suspended in beer barrels in Germany to keep the beer from going stale. Native Americans used iris roots to treat sores on their legs. when Egyptian kings engraved it on their scepters as a symbol of royal power and majesty (it was also placed on the brow of the sphinx) popularized again by King Louis VII of France who adopted it as the “Flower of Louis” or fleur-de-lis. Symbol: Faith, wisdom, valor and victory in war.įact: One of the oldest cultivated plants by royalty, records of iris date back to the 1400s B.C. The following guide includes nomenclature, myths and some little known facts for a small sampling of the many wildflowers found beside the streams, along the hillsides, and hidden among the rocky crevasses of our Idaho landscape. Long before European settlement, Native American Indians were masters at using plants medicinally and written records exist from the ancient Greeks who first identified and categorized plants as early as 300 B.C. They feed insects, birds, and even humans, hold the soil together, and serve as a base for many modern medicines-in fact, flowering plants provide almost 25 percent of the basic ingredients for our modern drugs. Wildflowers are essential to the health of our environment. Long-term management of habitat for golden paintbrush will require close monitoring to sustain existing populations of the species.While a delightful symbol of late spring blushing into the glorious stretch of summer, an alpine meadow tossed with wildflowers represents so much more than a bending, nodding wave of blue and magenta, gold and crimson. Golden paintbrush does best on sites that are frequently treated using prescribed fire a three to five-year fire frequency appears to keep the species robust and may facilitate natural reproduction if bare soil is available or created at the time of prescribed fire and at the time of seed release. The species does not tolerate shade from nearby trees, shrubs or even tall non-native grasses, therefore considerable management or disturbance from wildlife is necessary for its continued propagation. In upland prairies of Washington, the species can also be found on unique mounded prairies known as mima mounds. Golden paintbrush can now be found in these open grasslands on glacial outwash prairies in the Puget Trough lowlands of Washington State and British Columbia, and on alluvial soils in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. These fertile landscapes, supplemented by glacial till, became a hot bed of ecological activity as dozens of species of insects, plants, mammals and reptiles migrated to open grasslands. Prairies in the region were created at the end of the last ice age, when glaciers receded and left large swaths of cleared land in their wake. Golden paintbrush lives in a legacy of the ice age in the Pacific Northwest.
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