Calochortus nuttallii
{{Short description|Plant species in the lily family}}
{{redirect|Sego Lily}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Sego lily
| image = Sego lily cm.jpg
| status = {{TNCStatus}}
| status_system = TNC
| genus = Calochortus
| species = nuttallii
| authority = Torr.
| synonyms_ref = {{cite POWO |id=532447-1 |title=Calochortus nuttallii Torr. |access-date=6 January 2025}}
| synonyms = {{Species list
| Calochortus luteus | Nutt.
| Calochortus rhodothecus | Clokey
| Calochortus watsonii | M.E.Jones
}}
}}
File:Calochortus nuttallii Sego lily Utah.jpg, Utah]]
Calochortus nuttallii, also known as the sego lily, is a bulbous perennial plant that is endemic to the Western United States. The common name of sego comes from a similar Shoshone word. It is the state flower of Utah.
Distribution and habitat
The plant is native to a number of western states, being found throughout Utah and Wyoming, large parts of eastern Nevada, and parts of Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.{{cite web |url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242101485 |title=Calochortus nuttallii |access-date=2007-11-12 |work=Flora of North America |publisher=eFloras.org}}{{cite web |title=Distribution Map |url=http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=8184&flora_id=1 |website=Flora of North America |access-date=November 30, 2018}} It grows in dry, brushy or grassy slopes and desert high country.{{Cite web|title=Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin|url=https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CANU3|access-date=2021-12-21|website=www.wildflower.org}}
Description
File:Sego or Mariposa Lily (NGM XXXI p512).jpg
Calochortus nuttallii are around 15–45 cm (6–18 inches) in height and have linear leaves.
Plants have 1 to 4 flowers, each with 3 white petals (and 3 sepals) which are tinged with lilac (occasionally magenta) and have a purplish band radiating from the yellow base. A yellow petaled form with deep purple bands is known from Petrified Forest National Park.[http://archive.library.nau.edu/cdm/ref/collection/cpa/id/16364 Northern Arizona University: Petrified Forest Nat'l Park, Arizona. Yellow Sego Lilies (Calochortus nuttalli)] The yellow petaled form was also observed in a "super bloom" near the Orange Cliffs District of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, on the north side of the Colorado River near Hite, Utah in May 2019. The plant blooms in early summer, with flowers that can be up to 3 inches across.[http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CANU3 NPIN: Calochortus nuttalli]{{Cite web |url=http://extension.usu.edu/rangeplants/htm/sego-lily |title=Extension.usu.edu: Range Plants of Utah − Sego Lily |access-date=2015-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626002245/http://extension.usu.edu/rangeplants/htm/sego-lily |archive-date=2015-06-26 |url-status=dead }}
=Taxonomy=
Calochortus nuttallii is a species within the genus Calochortus, in a sub-group generally referred to as Mariposa Lilies. The specific epithet nuttallii, named for the English botanist and zoologist, Thomas Nuttall, was ascribed to the species by the American botanists John Torrey and Asa Gray when it was officially described in 1857.
==Former varieties==
A number of former varieties of Calochortus nuttallii have been reclassified as distinct species:
- Calochortus nuttallii var. aureus (S.Watson) Ownbey is currently Calochortus aureus S.Watson
- Calochortus nuttallii var. australis Munz is currently Calochortus invenustus Greene
- Calochortus nuttallii var. bruneaunis (A.Nelson & J.F.Macbr.) Ownbey is currently Calochortus bruneaunsis A.Nelson & J.F.Macbr.
- Calochortus nuttallii var. leichtlinii (Hook.f.) Smiley is currently Calochortus leichtlinii Hook.f.
- Calochortus nuttallii var. panamintensis Ownbey is currently Calochortus panamintensis (Ownbey) Reveal
- Calochortus nuttallii var. subalpinus M.E.Jones is currently Calochortus leichtlinii Hook.f.
[http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=301742 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]{{cite web |url=http://www.kew.org/searchepic/detailquery.do?requiredPage=1&scientificName=Calochortus+nuttallii&datasources=ipni&datasources=mc&datasources=libcat&datasources=herbcat&datasources=ecbot&datasources=livcoll&datasources=sid&datasources=sepasal&datasources=efz&categories=names&categories=bibl&categories=colln&categories=taxon&categories=flora&categories=misc&detailDatasource=mc |title=Calochortus nuttallii |access-date=2007-11-12 |work=electronic Plant Information Centre (ePIC) |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew}}{{Dead link|date=October 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}
=Names=
The common name "sego lily" is believed to be derived from a Shoshoni language word for the species, "sikoo".{{cite book |last=Buchanan |first=Hayle |title=Wildflowers of southwestern Utah: a field guide to Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks, and surrounding plant communities |edition=revised |date=1992 |publisher=Bryce Canyon Natural History Association |location=Bryce Canyon |isbn=1560440740 |page=67 }}{{cite web |title=Shoshoni Dictionary |url=https://shoshoniproject.utah.edu/language-materials/shoshoni-dictionary/dictionary.php?filter=S |website=Shoshoni Language Project |publisher=The University of Utah |access-date=27 August 2023}}
Uses
=Culinary=
Native Americans had culinary uses for the bulbs, seeds, and flowers of the plant. Bulbs were roasted, boiled, or made into a porridge by the Hopi, Havasupai, Navajo, Southern Paiute, Gosiute, and Ute peoples.[http://herb.umd.umich.edu/herb/search.pl?searchstring=Calochortus+nuttallii University of Michigan at Dearborn: Native American Ethnobotany of Calochortus nuttallii]{{cite web |url=http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/wildflwr/species/calonutt.htm |title=Mariposa Lily (Calochortus nuttallii)
|access-date=2007-11-12 |work=Native Wildflowers of the North Dakota Grasslands |publisher=Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
}}{{cite journal | author =Chamberlin, R.V.| author-link=Ralph Vary Chamberlin|url=http://www.swsbm.com/Ethnobotany/Ethnobotany_of_Gosiute.pdf |title=The Ethno-botany of the Gosiute Indians of Utah |access-date=2007-11-12 |journal=Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association Vol II, Part 5}} The Hopi used the yellow flower ceremonially.
The Shoshone taught the Mormon pioneer immigrants to use the bulb for badly needed food. This resulted in the sego lily being formally designated as the Utah State Flower in 1911.{{cite web |url=http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/flowers/ut_sego_lily.htm |title=Utah State Flower |access-date=2007-11-12 |publisher=Netstate.com}}{{cite book |last1=Xin Wu |title=Patricia Johanson and the Re-Invention of Public Environmental Art, 1958-2010 |date=2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781351554916 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uCwxDwAAQBAJ&dq=sego+lily+native+mormon&pg=PA140 |access-date=September 24, 2020 |quote=The Sego Lily brings back memories of the struggle for survival suring the early years of the settlement, when the pioneers were saved by the Shoshone Indians, who taught them to eat the bulb of the native Sego Lily (Calochortus nuttallii).}} Sego is derived from the Shoshone word seego.{{cite book |last1=Works Progress Administration |author-link=Works Progress Administration |title=Idaho: A Guide in Word and Picture |date=1937 |publisher=Idaho |location=Idaho |isbn=9781623760113 |page=115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K6siESLF9LUC&dq=sego+lily+shoshone+mormon&pg=PA115 |access-date=September 24, 2020 |quote=Sego (seego) is a Shoshoni name for food; and the edible bulb of this flower the Mormons ate and found good.}} The sego lily was commemorated by the Sego Lily Dam, a flood-prevention infrastructure project in the shape of a giant sego lily, built in Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City in 2017.{{cite news |last1=Lawrence |first1=Danica |title=Sugar House Park to receive functional yet beautiful art installation |url=https://www.fox13now.com/2017/11/07/sugar-house-park-to-receive-functional-yet-beautiful-art-installation |access-date=September 24, 2020 |work=FOX 13 |date=November 7, 2017}}
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service strongly cautions foragers that many highly toxic plants commonly called deathcamas grow in the same habitat as Calochortus nuttallii and can be easily confused with it when flowers are not present.{{cite web |last1=Wolf |first1=M. |last2=Tilley |first2=D. |title=Plant Guide for sego lily (Calochortus nuttallii) |url=https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_canu3.pdf |website=USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service |access-date=15 May 2023 |location=Aberdeen Plant Materials Center. Aberdeen, ID |date=2021}}
=Cultivation=
Calochortus nuttallii is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its attractive tulip-shaped flowers and to attract/support native pollinator species.[http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CANU3 NPIN: Calochortus nuttallii] They are intolerant of excessive water, both in dormancy and while growing. To support healthy growth they need a well drained soil, but not excessively sandy with very little organic matter. In relatively dry climates sego lilies accept either part shade or full sun conditions. Plants can be propagated from newly formed bulblets which take two years to flower.{{cite web |url=http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Calochortus+nuttallii |title=Calachotus nuttalli |access-date=2007-11-12 |publisher=Plants for a Future}} In climates with more rainfall than its native habitat additional measures to protect the bulbs from rotting are critical. The writer Claude A. Barr found that 8 centimeters or more of gravel no more than 7.5 centimeters under the bulbs remedied this problem.{{cite book |last1=Barr |first1=Claude A. |title=Jewels of the plains : wild flowers of the Great Plains grasslands and hills |date=1983 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=0-8166-1127-0 |pages=51–52}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons-inline}}
- [http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=CANU3 United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile for Calochortus nuttallii (sego lily)]
- [http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CANU3 Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas, NPIN−Native Plant Information Network: Calochortus nuttallii]
{{US state flowers}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q2934343}}
Category:Endemic flora of the United States
Category:Flora of the Western United States
Category:Flora of North Dakota
Category:Flora of South Dakota
Category:Garden plants of North America
Category:Plants described in 1904
Category:Plants used in Native American cuisine
Category:Taxa named by Asa Gray