Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

from the May 29, 2005 Newsletter issued from the Sierra Nevada foothills somewhat east of Placerville, California, USA
BRODIAEAS BUT NOT BRODIAEAS
Nowadays there's a strong feeling in the air that the hot dry season finally has arrived. Already grassy slopes are developing straw-colored blotches and I suspect that wildflower season is coming to a close. However, there's still a delightful spectrum of wildflowers blooming, a typical semi-open slope being nearly as floriferous as an Alpine meadow in August, and almost as pretty.

Lupines and clovers account for a lot of the gaudiness but here and there vivid outbreaks of other species occur. Along my jogging trail two fairly common ones are clearly members of the Lily Family -- six-lobed blossoms on slender stems (scapes), leaves arising from the base, the flowers' ovaries "superior." Though one of these Lily-Family members is bright yellow and the other is dark purple, their blossom structure is very similar, and older books refer to them both as Brodiaeas. Brodiaea is a genus in the Lily Family.

The Yellow one, Golden Brodiaea, is TRITELEIA IXIOIDES, its flowers bearing curious crown-like appendages behind each stamen, and each "petal" having a dark green midrib. Its picture can be seen on the Wikipedia Triteleia ixioides page.

The purple one, variously called Wild Hyacinth, Forktooth Ookow, Blue Dicks, Congested Snakelily and other confusing names, is DICHELOSTEMMA CONGESTUM, also with its Wikipedia page.

So, both of these species are sometimes known by the English name of Brodiaea, but neither now belongs to the genus Brodiaea. They used to be in that genus, but modern taxonomic thought has repositioned them.