Bitterroot

Bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva) is a small perennial herb in the family Montiaceae. Its specific epithet Template:Lang ("revived, reborn") refers to its ability to regenerate from dry and seemingly dead roots.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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, Template:Convert 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.<ref name="Klinkenberg2014">Template:Cite web</ref> The petals (usually about 15) are oblong in shape and are Template:Convert long.<ref name="Klinkenberg2014" /> They range in color from whitish to deep pink or lavender. Flowering occurs from April through July.<ref name="Sullivan2015">Template:Cite web</ref> At maturity, the bitterroot produces egg-shaped capsules with 6–20 nearly round seeds.<ref name="Klinkenberg2014" />

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.<ref name="Sullivan2015" /><ref name="PLANTS">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Klinkenberg2014" /><ref name="WTU Herbarium2015">Template:Cite web</ref>

Uses

The thick roots come into season in spring<ref name=":0" /> and can survive extremely dry conditions. If collected early enough in the season,<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> they can be peeled, boiled, and made into a jelly-like food.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

History and culture

French trappers knew the plant as Template:Lang (bitter root).<ref name = "bitterrootheaven" /> Native American names include spetlum/sp̓eƛ̓m̓ or spetlem ("hand-peeled"), nakamtcu (Ktanxa: naqam¢u),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and mo'ôtáa-heséeo'ôtse (Cheyenne, "black medicine").<ref>Cheyenne DictionaryTemplate:Dead link by Fisher, Leman, Pine, Sanchez.</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Lemhi Shoshone believed the small red core found in the upper taproot had special powers, notably being able to stop a bear attack.<ref name = "bitterrootheaven" /> Plains Indians peeled and boiled the root prior to its consumption.<ref name=":1" />

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.<ref name="bitterrootheaven"> Template:Cite web</ref> Based on Lewis and Clark's manuscript, Pursh labeled it "spatlum"; this apparently was actually a Salishan name for "tobacco".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The bitterroot was selected as the Montana state flower in 1895.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref name = "bitterrootheaven" /><ref name="Service1909">Template:Cite book</ref>

Further reading

• Template:Cite book
• Moerman. D. Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 Template:ISBN

External links

• Template:Commons category-inline
• Template:Wikispecies-inline
• Calflora Database: Lewisia rediviva (Bitter root)
• Central Washington Native Plant Society
• Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
• Bitterroot, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. Forest Service
• WSDOT - Ethnobotany - Herbs. Lewisia rediviva - Bitter-root, Sand Rose, Portulacaceae (Purslane Family)