Harvest Brodiaea

Elegant Brodiaea, Elegant Cluster-Lily
Brodiaea elegans ssp. elegans
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)
  • May wither before the plant blooms
• Flowers
  • Inflorescence (flower arrangement) is an open umbel (a spoke-like flower cluster with stalks radiating from a single point) at the end of a long, 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)
    • Broad, white to pale lilac staminodes have rounded tips and lean away from stamens
  • Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
• Fruit is a capsule (a dry multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity)
• Height to 20 in.

Distribution

• Native to California
  • Grows in serpentine and non-serpentine grasslands, open woodlands, and chaparral
  • See Calflora for statewide observations of this plant
• Outside California, grows in Oregon
• Grows at elevations to 7,980 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)
  • A jewelled spider fly in the genus Eulonchus has been documented as a potentially important pollinator (Borkent 2008)
• 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
• elegans (EL-e-gans) – from the Latin, meaning “elegant”
• Harvest – from being one of the later blooming wildflowers, or perhaps for the harvest of corms by Native peoples

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 in the Brodiaea family for a relatively small preserve (467 acres)!
  • Only 10 Brodiaea species occur in the entire Santa Cruz Mountains bioregion (approx. 900,000 acres) 
• Edgewood’s harvest 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

• At Edgewood, may be confused with Ithuriel’s spear (Triteleia laxa) or dwarf brodiaea (B. terrestris ssp. terrestris)
• Check out this short video (Jepson 2020) 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 in non-serpentine and sometimes serpentine grasslands and open woodlands
  • See iNaturalist for observations of this plant
• Flowers May – June

Specific References

Borkent, C.J., and Schlinger, E.I. 2008, Mar. Pollen loads and pollen diversity on bodies of Eulonchus tristis (Diptera: Acroceridae): implications for pollination and flower visitation. The Canadian Entomologist. 140(2): 257–265.

Clayton, R. 2022, Apr. 1. Triplet lilies, ookows, and blue dicks: Tips for identifying Brodiaeoideae [Video]. Fire Followers Spring Training [Webinar]. California Native Plant Society. YouTube.

Jepson Herbarium. 2020, Oct. 1. Themidaceae (Brodiaea, Dichelostemma, Dipterostemon, and Triteleia) [Video]. The Jepson Videos: Visual Guide to the Plants of California. The Regents of the University of California. YouTube.

Sullivan, R. 2013, Apr. 11. Ithuriel’s spear and other spears of springtime. Bay Nature. 

PlantID.net. Ithuriel’s spear or harvest brodiaea?

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.