The Bulb Maven

Native American Uses of Bulbs

Lewisia rediviva, pictured on the left, isn't a bulb, but does have a long carroty-like root.  The plant goes dormant in the summer, re-emerging in the autumn or late winter, depending upon the region it grows in.  The Indian name is 'bitter-root', referring to the bitter taste to the skin.  It was a very important food for many Indian tribes, and the roots were eaten after being peeled and cooked, and could be stored for very long periods of time.  Apparently (I haven't tried this) the peeled roots taste a bit like a parsnip.  They were of such value to some tribes that a horse could be traded for a sack of dried roots.  The name 'rediviva' (meaning, roughly, coming back to life) refers to the fact that herbarium specimens that had been held for extended periods would sometimes try to resprout even in storage.  Many Lewisias are hard to grow, but L. rediviva is fairly easy, and has lovely satiny flowers that come in a range of pinks and include white.

Most of the Brodiaea group (including Triteleia, Dichelostemma and Brodiaea) were used for food, and were dried and stored, pounded into a flour, or boiled or eaten raw.  Lily bulbs were also used in this manner, as were the bulbs of Calochortus. 

Chlorogalum pomeridianum was used differently.  It could, in a pinch, be eaten for food, but the entire plant is rich in saponins, chemicals with soap-like qualities, and, like soap, they taste bad.  The bulb was used for soap, and I have mixed the pounded raw bulb with water, where it gives a very silky, soapy lather, leaving your skin feeling very soft.  It could be used for medicine, and the raw bulb rubbed on the skin is said to alleviate poison oak.  The thick fiber that coats the bulb was, and still is, used to make wonderful brushes. The brushes were used to brush acorn meal from the mortar where they had been pounded into a flour, or for anything else that needed brushing.  The brush part is made from the fiber, and the handle is make from the cooked inner bulb.  If you would like to see how to make one yourself, go to the link:  Download making_a_soaproot_brush.doc .  The skill involved is not like making a basket!!  You would need four or five large bulbs.   

Camassia

I am often asked for recommendations regarding bulbs that are suitable for the garden.  Since most of the bulbs I grow are adapted to very specialized climates, such as Mediterranean or subtropical climates, it can be difficult to point out species that are reliable, showy enough, and adapted to a wide range of conditions.

Camassias are blooming now, and they definitely come to mind as excellent garden plants.  They are tall, have lovely flowers, are cheap to buy and increase well.  Although most species are from the western USA, they tolerate summer water and are fairly hardy.

Recently I acquired a spectacular Camassia leichtlinii that is pink flowered (see the above picture, courtesy of L. Hunt).  This is blooming now, and has large clear pink flowers.  I was told it came from a roadside population that was destroyed by the widening of the road, so it may not even exist in the wild any more.  If anyone has knowledge of pink populations of Camassia, I would love to hear about it (and, don't worry, I don't collect bulbs from the wild, and I don't need more, I'd just like to know).

Here are some other Camassias, which are usually in a range of blue to white. Below, left to right are: C. cusickii; C. leichtlinii alba; C. leichtlinii; C. quamash.

Native American Uses of Camassia

The bulbs native to the western USA were very important to Native Americans, mostly for food, although Chlorogalum pomeridianum was used for soap, medicinally, and the fiber was (and still is) used to make beautiful little brushes (I will post something on this later).

In California, especially in the northern part of the state, acorns were the staple food for the Indian tribes, and were processed to remove the tannins, then made into a flour that was used to make a sort of soup, or small cakes. This is still done for ceremonial purposes.  In other parts of the west, Camassias were the staple food, especially for the Nez Pierce and Shoshone Indians, although they were still very much appreciated by other tribes.  They are fairly large bulbs, and were dug after they went dormant, then cooked in deep pits.  A large pit would be dug, and the bulbs layered with wet, green alder branches, making many such layers, then a fire would be built on top of the pit.  The fire would be kept going for two or three days (or more), then, after cooling, the bulbs removed from the pit, peeled, flattened and dried.  The long slow cooking converted the starches in the bulb to sugars, and the resulting patty was sweet and could be stored for lengthy periods of time.  I have eaten the bulbs boiled, and they are like very starchy potatoes.  One danger in collecting Camassia bulbs is that Zigadenus can grow in the same regions, preferring low wet areas.  Zigadenus is known as 'death camas', since the bulbs are extremely poisonous.  The bulbs look very similar, but Zigadenus blooms much earlier than Camassia, and the Indian people would go through and weed out any Zigadenus.  The seed heads are also very different, again giving an opportunity to make sure you are getting the bulbs you want. Here is a picture of Z. fremontii.  And, by the way, Camas is a Indian word.