It was the end of May, when I stumbled upon what looks like a long abandoned Sinixt summer camp.What made me to park the car and go exploring the rocky outcrop above Kootenay River were bunches of dark-blue blossoms, happily nodding from a steep bluff. I climbed up, photographed them, post-processed the pictures in Photoshop (I always shoot in the RAW format) and began to look for their common and scientific names.
Little did I know!
The pretty blue flowers made me change into a detective, historian and a theologian at the same time. By the time I finished the identification I learned about a whole range of unrelated topics.
I had no leads so I started to snoop in my Illustrated Guide to 2000 Plants and Animals. It had been published by Reader's Digest about a kadzillion years ago - in 1985 - and it is called North American Wildlife. As I just discovered it is still available, updated. A great resource indeed. They have done an amazing job and I use this book as a first line when narrowing down my findings. I am extremely visual and it is the fastest way for me to match my photo with an illustration.
A name that jumped out from the book was kind of strange: Ithuriel's Spear - Brodiaea laxa. A strange name considering that the whole plant looks more like a bazooka than a spear. Let the modern research begin!
My Internet connection fired, I typed in the common name. Well, the first thing I found was that there was (is, I suppose) an angel called Ithuriel. I grew up in a different time and regime, so there was no Sunday school for me. Ithuriel posses a magic spear that can detect deceit. Wouldn't that be a handy thing to have! Perhaps there would be no economic crisis at the beginning of the third millenium. Where is the angel when we need him? Her? It could be flying around Wall Stret and around the rest of the world, touching people here and there, singing "Show me your true colours, tadada daa da."
Sorry, could not resist ....
Ithuriel became famous for exposing Satan who happened to be sneaking about in Paradise. The story goes somewhat like this: One day, Satan, the Fallen Angel, got some kinky ideas and wanted to sell them to Eve. He squatted down by her pink ear disguised as a toad. Pretty hard to do if you are a toad but maybe Eve was lying in the grass or something. He was just about to start whispering when Ithuriel noticed that things were not completely right. Maybe the toads were supposed to be in another part of Paradise or it was a wrong season, we don't know. Ithuriel knew. He dashed over and smacked the toad with the magic spear. No more marketing! Poof! The toad turned into his proper form - Satan - shrieked and flew away. Phew!
If you doubt this story, have a look at John Milton's Paradise Lost. It is a lengthy epic poem (just in case that you are like me and forgetting your high school education). It was written in 17th century and it might really, really talk to you. I am quite serious. Or, it might not.
Why they chose a toad to be
a bad creature is beyond me – they are very helpful (maybe that’s why).
They
are also endangered and disappearing because of us.
OK, Ithuriel has been solved. As for the spear and the plant, things did not add up. The bunch of blue blossoms looked like anything but a spear!
What were they smoking before wondering into the woods, I thought. So I took another avenue and typed in the the Latin name. Brodiaea. Whatever that means.
Bingo!
Bingo? Not really. Someone has re-named the plant to Triteleia. Why?
Bingo anyway.
Detective me, I was getting close .... really close!
Well, was it Brodiea duglasii or Brodiea laxa? Is it Triteleia laxa or Triteleia grandiflora? Where did they come from with all these names?
No matter what the name was - all of them, save the White Hyacinth, gave matching descriptions to the plant I found in the woods.
Finally, I summarized as follows:
A perennial that grows from small scaly corms on a single stem that is up to about a half meter tall, and whose bell-shaped flowers are presenting many shades of catchy blue (from dark to light), and whose leaves are like long thin daggers growing straight from the base and not attached to the flower stem and that, as far as I know, has been called all of the below:
Ithuriel’s Spear,
Gophernuts (hmm),
Brodiaea,
Douglas' Brodiaea
scientifically previously Brodiaea douglasii or Broadiea laxa
and presently Triteleia grandiflora or
Triteleia laxa.
and probably many more
Come on guys, make up your minds!
Further research uncovered that these plants bloom mostly in shades of blue BUT some can be white therefore White Hyacinth, the description that could not be further away from the appearance of what I found.
The plant stem comes out from a corm - and underground part, that is about 2 cm wide - would that warrant Gophernuts or is it the fact that the corms can be eaten (raw or cooked)? The starchy corms played important role in people's diet, especially during the early spring when all the nutrients still rested inside the corm. Perhaps that's why such a profusion of these plants at the old camp.
Speaking of corms, why did I not take a photo of the corm? I did not think of it, that's why. I guess that I am just like the most other people, I fail to dig deep down to have a thorough look at the whole thing. Instead, I just have a quick look and say: "Wow! A pretty blue flower on a tall stem."
I am tempted to promise to fix this approach and start digging - but as I also found out, this plant is becoming scarce in nature (same of which applies to the toad in the above photo). If every photographer, gardener and nature enthusiast started to dig ....?
It might be a good idea to get a good book instead. Something like Plants of The Rocky Mountains. It is written by Linda Kershaw, Andy McKinnon and Jim Pojar and published by Lone Pine Publishing. That’s where a lot of my info came from. There, on page 92, is also a nice sketch of the entire plant (Including the corm!) .
When the plant starts to shoot up in spring, it does just that: shoots up like a spear - looks like one too. So that's where Ithuriel's Spear came from. O-kay.
Further on - sometimes around year 1800 two Scottish botanists came to North American continent. They were collecting, describing, drawing, drying and ... you name it ... all kinds of plants and trees still unknown or little known to the Europeans then. What a better pat on the back than to give their names to the plants and trees. One of the explorers was James J. Brodie and the other one was David Douglas. They probably ended with "Sir" added to their names. That's where Brodiea douglasii and Douglas' Brodiea come from.
Have YOU had enough? I am not finished!
We have all those wonderful names. So can you tell me why we needed to re-name the plant to Triteleia?
Someone liked Greek language better than the peoples' last names. Tri = 3, teleios = perfect. Perfect threes. Check it out, everything is in threes. Why did Mr. Brodie fall out of botanical dichotomous favour, I did not find.
Just in case that you are not asleep and still keen to go on and you are wondering about "laxa", that refers to the "loose" blossoms dangling on the long stem. Laxa should be easy to remember.
And grandiflora sound like large-flowered doesn't it? Is Triteleia laxa and Triteleia grandiflora the same plant? My plant? I do not know that.
And, unlike you, I have had enough!
Next time, let us get a good dichotomous key. It might save a lot of time.
On the other hand - would I have learned all this?
In any case, wherever these pretty plants grow and bloom, their vivid blue is sure to catch the eye's attention
They are a welcome sign of spring and early summer and they are definitely worth a photograph or two. Well, ninety seven in my case.
