Incredible plants: Calochortus

Calochortus luteus from Santa Cruz Island, CA, 2012.

One of my favorite groups of flowers is the genus Calochortus in the lily family (Liliaceae).  Calochortus is of Greek derivation and means “beautiful grass” (Baldwin et al. 2012). Lilies, like grasses, are monocots, and many species in this genus have narrow leaves that can be mistaken at first glance for their grass cousins. 

There are about 70 species of Calochortus globally, distributed in central and North America (Baldwin et al 2012). In the Oregon flora, 18 species are recognized (Cook and Sundberg 2012) and a whopping 45 occur in California (Baldwin et al. 2012) – more than half of all global diversity!



Calochortus ?amabilis near Lake
Berryessa, northern CA, 2009.

The flowers are generally very showy. Perusing through the images for different species in the CalFlora database, for instance, shows a remarkable diversity of flower shape, color, and decoration. The inside surface of the petals are often hairy (as can be easily seen on one of the photographs below) (Baldwin et al. 2012). As would be expected with a plant in the lily family, flower parts are in threes: there are 3 petals, 6 stamens and 1 style that divides into 3 stigmas ready to receive pollen (Baldwin et al. 2012).


Among the attractive species in the genus are the globe lilies. The flowers of these plants are pendant and somewhat resemble a delicate Japanese paper lantern. An example is C. albus in the California flora.







Another beautiful example of Calochortus is C. nuttallii, the state flower of Utah. It is a desert plant occurring throughout the intermountain west at elevations of 5 to 8 thousand feet (Patraw 1977). Flower color varies from whitish to blue or purple hues (Patraw 1977). The plants that I observed on a trip to the desert of eastern Utah two years ago were whitish. The underground bulbs of this species are edible and were consumed by Native Americans (Patraw 1977).



Calochortus nuttallii, Dinosaur National Monument, UT.

References

- Baldwin, B.G. 2012. The Jepson Manual. Vascular Plants of California. UC Press.
- Cook, T. and S. Sundberg (eds). 2012. Checklist of Oregon Liliaceae. Oregon Flora Project
- Patraw, P.M. 1977. Flowers of the Southwest Mesas. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, Globe,
  AZ.