Dichelostemma pulchellum var. pulchellum  (Salisb.)Heller =Dichelostemma capitatum =Brodiaea pulchella =Brodiaea capitata Alliaceae (Onion Family) Native    Blue Dicks   Wild Hyacinth

                                        April Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Perennial herb with underground corms bearing dark brown tunicated bulb-coats; scapes erect, bearing umbels, 3-6 (-9) dm. high, smooth; lvs. rounded not carinate, 1.5-4 dm. long, 5-12 mm. wide; bracts purple, usually ovate; pedicels 2-15 mm. long; perianth-tube pale, 4-8 mm. long cylindro-campanulate; segms. violet, rarely white, ascending, 7-11 mm. long; fils. opposite the outer segms. dilated, 2 mm. long, bearing anthers 2-3 mm. long, those opposite the inner segms. adnate but extending beyond the anthers, which are 3.5-4.5 mm. long, as 2 lanceolate appendages; style 4-6 mm. long, caps. ovoid, 4-6 mm. long, sessile; seeds 2.5-4 mm. long.

Habitat:  Common on plains and hillsides below Yellow Pine F., in most parts of Calif. w. of the Sierra Nevada; to Ore., L. Calif.; more uncommon e. of the Sierra, in Pinyon-Juniper Wd. and Yellow Pine F. to s. Utah and n. Ariz.  March-May.

Name:  Greek, dicha, bifid, and stemma, garland, referring to the stamen-appendages.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 878).  For James Brodie (1744-1824), Scottish botanist who specialized in algae, ferns and mosses.  Latin, pulchellum, beautiful.  (Dale 27).  Latin, capitatus, having a head.  (Jaeger 46).  Referring to the relatively large flower sitting atop a long pedicel.  (my comment).

General:  Occasional in the study area and when found will generally occur in a colony.   Photographed on the Castaway's Bluffs and on the bank above Back Bay Dr. between the Newporter Inn and San Joaquin Hills Dr.  (my comments).     The corms are thought to have been one of the most important underground food plants of the Sierra Indians, such as the Miwoks.  Bulbs can be eaten raw, fried, boiled and roasted.  Flowers can be used in salads.  Pick only bulbs with flowers as the white flowered death-camas grow in the same habitat (mountain meadows). (Clarke 28).       Brodiaea was used as a paint binder and adhesive on bows.  (Heizer & Elsasser 243).      The little corms are tasty and were enjoyed by the Indians and the children of early settlers who called them grass nuts.  (Dale 27).     The little bulbs are quite palatable and are eaten raw.  The early Spanish-Americans appreciated the bulbs and knew them as "saitas".  (Parsons 268).       Propagation of tuberous plants by hunting and gathering groups has taken various forms.  The Cahuilla Indians selectively harvested the larger corms for food, leaving or replanting the cormlets to ensure a crop the following year.  Harvesting of corms, bulbs, and tubers by Pomoans in the California Coast Range, aerated the soil and resulted in the severing of bulblets from the parent bulbs, increasing the size of the plant bed.  In California, Indian-potatoes, the corms of Brodiaea and Calochortus species, grow in "beds" and were easily harvested.  The Karuk Indians claimed that by digging these corms more grew each year.  Wild onions also were reported to multiply in numbers when intensively harvested by indigenous groups.  Brodiaea species grew in "plots" and were irrigated by the Owens Valley Paiute to increase the natural yield of the corms.  (Anderson, M. Kat. "California Indian Horticulture."  FREMONTIA, A Journal of the California Native Plant Society, Vol. 18 No. 2.  April 1990 pp. 7-14).       Delfina Cuero, a Kumeyaay or Southern Diegueno Indian, made the following comment about Dichelostemma sp. in her autobiography:  "We ate the bulbs after baking them."  (Shipek 86).       A small genus of Pacific North America.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 877).       Amaryllidaceae is treated in Liliaceae in the Jepson Manual.  (Hickman, Ed. 1172).        Roberts in his second edition of  A Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Orange County, California, 1998, moves the Orange County species of Amaryllidaceae into Alliaceae, the onion family.     Comparison of the DNA sequences for various genes, usually those found in the chloroplast of the plant cell has led biologists to propose many changes in the plant families as they are now known.  It is proposed to move the genus Dichelostemma from Alliaceae to Themidaceae.   (Kelch, Dean G. “Consider the Lilies” FREMONTIA, A Journal of the California Native Plant Society Vol. 30 No. 2 April 2002 pp. 23-29).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 1192; Munz, Calif. Flora 1385; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 878; Roberts 42.

Photo Ref:  Mar 1 83 # 12; Feb-Mar 86 #13.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by G. Marsh.  

First Found:  March 1983.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 126.  

Have plant specimen.

Last edit  5/28/04. 

                                   April Photo                                                                    May Photo