Wild Hyacinth, Fool’s Onion
Triteleia hyacinthina
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 (to 16 in.)
- 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)
- 10-20 (or more) white trumpet-shaped flowers, occasionally tinted purple to blue
- Individual flowers have 3 petals and 3 sepals (outer flower parts), in 2 whorls, similar in appearance and collectively called tepals, fused into a shallow-bowl shaped tube with spreading tips
- Tepals have green veins
- 6 stamens (male flower parts), with cream, yellow, or sometimes blue anthers, attached at 1 level, of equal height
- Triangular filaments (stamen stalks)
- Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
- 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)
- Fruit is a capsule (a dry multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity)
- Height to 24 in.
Distribution
- Native to California
- Grows in pine forest, grasslands, foothill woodlands, wetlands
- See Calflora for statewide observations of this plant
- Outside California, grows from British Columbia south to California and west from Idaho
- Grows at elevations to 6,560 ft.
Uses (San Mateo County Parks prohibits removal of any natural material)
- Wildlife
- Attracts bees and butterflies for nectar
- Nectar source for anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon), Western tiger swallowtail (P. rutulus), three-striped longhorn (Adela trigrapha) (Caldwell 2014)
- Small heliothodes moths (Heliothodes diminutivus) frequent the flowers at Edgewood
- Corms are eaten by mammals
- Attracts bees and butterflies for nectar
- Native people
- Ate the corms boiled, steamed, roasted, or baked in earthen ovens (Anderson 2005)
- See Brodiaea family for more details about how Native people actively managed edible geophytes
with White Brodiaea (behind)
© SBernhard
Name Derivation
- Triteleia (tri-tel-EE-a) – from the Greek tri, meaning “three,” and teleios, “perfect,” referring to floral parts in 3’s
- hyacinthina (hi-a-SIN-thin-a) – most probably from the Old World flower “hyacinth” and the Greek or Latin suffix -inus, for “resembling”
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)
- Previously in the Lily family
ID Tips
- At Edgewood, may be confused with long-rayed brodiaea (T. peduncularis), which can grow in close proximity to white brodiaea, and occasionally with the white form of Ithuriel’s spear (T. laxa)
- Check out this short video (Jepson 2020) for an overview of Triteleia or this longer video (Clayton 2022) at 52 minutes for ID tips
| White Brodiaea | Long-rayed Brodiaea | Ithuriel’s Spear | |
| Flower Shape | shallow, bowl-shaped tube | long, funnel-shaped tube | long, funnel-shaped tube |
| Tepals | white … green veins | white to pale violet or pink … violet veins | blue-purple, occasionally white … purple veins |
| Anthers | white to cream | white | white to pale purple |
| Filament Shape | triangular | threadlike | linear |
| Stamens | attached at 1 level … of equal height | attached at 2 levels … of unequal height | attached at 2 levels … of equal height |
| Ovary | pale green | yellow | pale purple |
| Pedicels2 | short (~ 2 in.) | long (~ 3.5 – 8 in.) | medium (~ 4 in.) |
2 Stalk of a single flower in a cluster
At Edgewood
- Found in serpentine and non-serpentine grasslands, usually on wetter slopes
- Found on the lower Clarkia trail
- See iNaturalist for observations of this plant
- Flowers April-June
Specific References
Caldwell, J.A. 2014. California Plants as Resources for Lepidoptera: a Guide for Gardeners, Restorationists and Naturalists.
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.
Pacific Bulb Society. 2025, Sep. 9. Triteleia species two. Pacific Bulb Society Wiki.
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.