Dwarf Brodiaea

Brodiaea terrestris ssp. terrestris
NATIVE

Description (Jepson, PlantID.net)

• Monocotyledon
  • Monocots are a major lineage of flowering plants; see family for general characteristics
• Brodiaea Family (Themidaceae)
• Perennial herb
  • Grows from a corm (a short, solid underground stem)
• Leaves
  • Basal, linear, grasslike
  • Generally with a prominent longitudinal ridge (keeled)
  • Often die back before flowers appear
• Flowers
  • Inflorescence (flower arrangement) is an umbel (a spoke-like flower cluster with stalks radiating from a single point) at the end of a leafless stalk (scape)
    • 3-10 blue-violet, funnel-shaped flowers on pedicels (stalk of a single flower in a cluster)
  • Individual flowers have 3 petals and 3 sepals (outer flower parts), in 2 separate whorls, similar in appearance and collectively called tepals
    • Tepals fleshy, waxy
    • Tips recurved
  • 3 stamens (male flower parts) and 3 staminodes (sterile modified stamen/male flower part)
    • Anther (pollen producing part of stamen) tips notched and generally reflexed (bent backwards)
    • White staminodes have rounded, generally notched tips and lean slightly towards the stamens
      • Sides strongly incurved with slightly reflexed tips
  • Ovary superior (attached above other flower parts)
• Fruit is a capsule (a dry multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity)
• Height to 2.7 in.

Distribution

• Native to California
  • Grows in grasslands, coastal prairie, and foothill woodlands
    • Adapts well to serpentine soil and can flourish in semi-shade (California Native Plant Society)
  • See Calflora for statewide observations of this plant
• Outside California, grows in southwest Oregon
• Grows at elevations to 1,475 ft.

Uses (San Mateo County Parks prohibits removal of any natural material)

• Wildlife
  • Nectar and pollen source for a number of insects including bees, flies, and butterflies
    • Nectar source for pale swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon), Western tiger swallowtail (P. rutulus), Edith’s checkerspot (Euphydras editha), and propertius duskywing (Erynnis propertius)
• Native people
  • Boiled, steamed, roasted, or baked corms in earthen ovens (Anderson 2005)
  • See Brodiaea family for more details about how Native people actively managed edible geophytes

Name Derivation

• Brodiaea (BRO-dee-a) – named for James Brodie (1744-1824), Scottish politician and botanist who specialized in ferns, mosses, and algae
• terrestris (ter-ES-tris) – from the Latin for “on land,” referring to its ground-hugging habit
• Dwarf – for its usually shorter height in comparison to other brodiaea

Notes

• Geophytes (e.g. plants growing from bulbs, corms, and rhizomes) are adapted to survive fire, our Mediterranean climate’s long, dry summers, and extended droughts
  • Above-ground growth dies back after flowering, while underground the plant survives with stored water and nutrients
• One of 9 Brodiaea family members found at Edgewood
  • An extraordinary representation for a small preserve (467 acres)!
  • Only 10 Brodiaea species occur in the entire Santa Cruz Mountains bioregion (approx. 900,000 acres)
• Edgewood’s dwarf brodiaea is classified as a subspecies
  • Subspecies indicates a geographically separated population with distinct morphological characteristics; when not isolated, interbreeding is possible
  • Variety indicates a population with small morphological variations, e.g. color, seen throughout the geographic range of the species; interbreeding is possible
  • In practice, botanists have not consistently applied these ranks
• Previously in the Lily family

ID Tips

• May be confused with harvest brodiaea (B. elegans ssp. elegans) and Ithuriel’s spear (Triteleia laxa) at Edgewood
• Check out this short video (Jepson 2020) for an overview of brodiaea identification or this longer video (Clayton 2022) starting at 1:05 for more ID tips

	Dwarf Brodiaea	Harvest Brodiaea	Ithuriel’s Spear
Height	≤ 2.7 in.	≤ 20 in.	≤ 28 in.
Blooms	March-June	May-June	April-June
Tepals	fleshy, waxy	fleshy, waxy	paper thin
Stamens	3 … broad, white anthers, tips notched	3 … white anthers, tips unnotched	6 … slender, white to purple anthers, tips unnotched
Staminodes1	curl strongly towards stamens	lean away from stamens	none
Habitat	mostly serpentine grasslands	mostly non-serpentine grasslands	mostly woodlands

At Edgewood

• Found mostly in serpentine grasslands; also found in non-serpentine grasslands
  • See iNaturalist for observations of this plant
• Flowers March – June

Specific References

Anderson, M.K. 2005. Tending the Wild. University of California, Berkeley.

California Native Plant Society, Yerba Buena Chapter. Edible Native Plants of San Francisco.

Meyers, S. 2021. Flora of Oregon: Brodiaea terrestris. Vol. 1, pg 154. OregonFlora. OSU Herbarium, Oregon State University.

Mitchell, M. 2017. Themidaceae – Brodiaea family. Monterey County Wildflowers, Trees, & Ferns – A Photographic Guide.

Pacific Bulb Society. 2025, Apr. 16. Brodiaea species two. Pacific Bulb Society Wiki.

Shapiro, A.M. and T.D. Manolis. 2007. Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Charter, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meaning and Derivations.

Charter, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.) Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Flora of North America. efloras.org.

Harris, J.G. and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Native American Ethnobotany DB.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.