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Yellow Bell
In my childhood, the first and truest sign of spring was a small,
bright-flowered plant. It grew on the grassy foothills above our home.
We erroneously called it a "buttercup". Years later I found its true
name was Yellow Bell, Yellow Fritillary, or scientifically
Fritillaria pudica , a member of the Lily family.
Its blossoming meant that the meadowlark was already here, or coming soon;
the Canada geese would be nesting in the marshes; and the sage grouse
would soon be courting. We gathered handfuls of the yellow flowers, and
even tried to transplant a few. The blossom of the plant hung its head
modestly. Usually there was only one to a plant, but once in awhile there
would be two or three -- but each on a separate stalk. The sepals and
petals were similar, three each, and about one half to three quarters of
an inch long. The leaves, numbering two to six, were long and narrow.
When the plants were dug up, we found them to come from a white fleshy
corm, pitted and flattened on the upper surface, and surrounded by thirty
to fifty rice-like bulblets. As the plant aged, the color of the blossom
would change from bright yellow to orange, and sometimes to a dull red.
Indians liked the starchy potato taste of the raw corm.
Eskimos and natives of eastern Asia eat them too.
When cooked, they taste like rice.
Fritillaria plants are found from the sagebrush flats,
up to 9000 feet elevation. In North America, they are distributed from
Montana and British Columbia south to California and New Mexico. There
are three species in the Rocky Mountain region.
-- by Adrianna Montgomery
References:
- Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers
Craighead, Craighead & Davis
- Spring Flora of the Wasatch Region
Garrett
- Field Book of Western Flowers
Armstrong
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