Early Spring on the High Plateau: Sand Lilies and Fringed Gromwell

...it wasn't Pasqueflower that beckoned me out into the moody Colorado weather. It was Sand Lilies. Lilies can be unusual and lovely, and I had never seen Sand Lilies, so...

Sand Lilies, or Star Lilies (Leucocrinum montanum), as it turns out, are not big, showy things, or even marginally showy things. They really aren't showy at all, or perhaps are showy in a more subtle fashion. They are ground-hugging white flowers that remind me of face-up White Trout Lilies that never got off the ground. They bloom in the spring in the plains and the foothills, from central Oregon into northern California, and east to northern New Mexico, Colorado, and the western Dakotas. It is the only member of its genus.

The entire plant is a stemless bunch of narrow, grass-like leaves, which get up to about 8" long. Several white, star-like flowers blossom in the middle of the basal rosette of leaves. When they are showy in a more subtle fashion it is when you find a colony of them scattered about in front of you. It is quite a sight.

Sand Lily roots were once used by the Crow Indians as a food source. The Paiute and Shoshoni made a poultice of the pulverized roots for swelling and sores.

Where Sand Lilies were the flowers that got me out in the first place, Fringed Gromwell (Lithospermum incisum) was the last new wildflower I saw in Colorado, before moving on.

Also known as Fringed Puccoon, this member of the Borage Family (Boraginaceae) grows in foothills and dry plains, from British Columbia over to Ontario, and south into southeastern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado dyes and Texas, and across the Great Plains to Illinois. It blooms from mid-spring into mid-summer. Its bright yellow flowers, which are only about 3/4" wide, are pretty easy to overlook when there are so many other yellow flowers blooming at the same time. But my wife did notice them ... or rather it, the single plant along the path ... and she, doing her own wee bit of a wildflower jig, called me back for a look.

The flowers are, as the name reminds us, fringed.

The Navajo used Fringed Gromwell to treat coughs and colds; the Cheyenne made a tea of the leaves, stems and roots that was used to treat delirium. Many Native Americans used the blue-violet dye that was produced by the roots. The roots were also a source of food.

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