bitterroot

File:Bitterroot.jpg

Lewisia rediviva is a low-growing perennial plant with a fleshy taproot and a simple or branched base and a low rosette of thick fleshy linear leaves with blunt tips. The leaves are roughly circular in cross section, sometimes somewhat flattened on the adaxial (top) surface. The absence of an adaxial groove on the leaves distinguishes this from other Lewisia species with overlapping ranges. The leaves often wither before flowers open.

The very short flower stems are leafless, {{Convert|1|-|3|cm|1|frac=8}} tall, bearing at the tip a whorl of 5–6 linear bracts which are 5–10 mm long. A single proportionally huge flower appears on each stem with 5–9 oval-shaped sepals and many petals.{{cite web |date=2014 |editor-last=Klinkenberg |editor-first=Brian |title=Lewisia rediviva |url=http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Lewisia%20rediviva |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113715/http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Lewisia%20rediviva |archive-date=2016-03-04 |access-date=2015-04-23 |website=E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Plants of British Columbia [eflora.bc.ca]. |publisher=Lab for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver}} Each flower has between ten and nineteen petals that measure {{Convert|15 to 35|mm|1|frac=8}} long.{{Cite web |last1=Hershkovitz |first1=Mark A. |last2=Hogan |first2=Sean B. |date=30 July 2020 |orig-date=In print 2003 |url=http://dev.floranorthamerica.org/Lewisia_rediviva |title=Lewisia rediviva |website=Flora of North America |page=484 |language=en |isbn=978-0-19-517389-5 |oclc=177245214 |access-date=1 June 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123171058/http://dev.floranorthamerica.org/Lewisia_rediviva |archive-date=23 January 2021}} They range in color from whitish to deep pink or lavender. Flowering occurs from April through July.{{cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Steven. K. |date=2015 |title=Lewisia rediviva |url=http://www.wildflowersearch.com/search?&PlantName=Lewisia+rediviva |access-date=2015-04-23 |website=Wildflower Search}} At maturity, the bitterroot produces egg-shaped capsules with 6–20 nearly round seeds.

The plant is native to western North America from low to moderate elevations on grassland, open bushland, forest in dry rocky or gravelly soils. Its range extends from southern British Columbia, through Washington and Oregon west of the Cascade Range to southern California, and east to western Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, northern Colorado and northern Arizona.{{cite web |date=2015 |title=Lewisia rediviva |url=http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LERE7 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703214301/http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LERE7 |archive-date=2013-07-03 |access-date=2015-04-23 |website=PLANTS Database |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture; Natural Resources Conservation Service}}{{cite web |date=2015 |editor-last=Giblin |editor-first=David |title=Lewisia rediviva |url=http://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection.php?Genus=Lewisia&Species=rediviva |access-date=2015-04-23 |website=WTU Herbarium Image Collection |publisher=Burke Museum, University of Washington}}

The thick roots come into season in spring and can survive extremely dry conditions. If collected early enough in the season,{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Ronald J.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/25708726|title=Sagebrush Country: A Wildflower Sanctuary|publisher=Mountain Press Pub. Co|year=1994|isbn=0-87842-280-3|edition=rev.|location=Missoula, MT|pages=122|language=en|oclc=25708726|orig-year=1992}} they can be peeled, boiled, and made into a jelly-like food.{{Cite book|last=Angier|first=Bradford|url=https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetoedib00angi/page/36/mode/2up|title=Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants|publisher=Stackpole Books|year=1974|isbn=0-8117-0616-8|location=Harrisburg, PA|pages=36|oclc=799792|author-link=Bradford Angier}}

French trappers knew the plant as {{lang|fr|racine amère}} (bitter root). Native American names include spetlum/sp̓eƛ̓m̓ or spetlem ("hand-peeled"), nakamtcu (Ktanxa: naqam¢u),{{Cite web

| title = FirstVoices: Ktunaxa words

| access-date = 2012-07-08

| url = http://www.firstvoices.ca/en/Ktunaxa/word/63b51dec5cf5793e/Bitterroot

| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130115131911/http://www.firstvoices.ca/en/Ktunaxa/word/63b51dec5cf5793e/Bitterroot

| url-status = dead

| archive-date = January 15, 2013

}} and mo'ôtáa-heséeo'ôtse (Cheyenne, "black medicine").[http://www.cdkc.edu/cheyennedictionary/index-english/main.htmm Cheyenne Dictionary]{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} by Fisher, Leman, Pine, Sanchez.

The roots were consumed by tribes such as the Shoshone and the Flathead Indians as an infrequent delicacy. Traditionally, the Ktunaxa cooked bitterroot with grouse. For the Ktunaxa, bitterroot is eaten with sugar; other tribes prefer eating it with salt.{{Cite web

| last = Ashley Casimer

| title = Nutrition: Ktunaxa People and the Traditional Food History

| work = Aqam Community Learning Centre

| access-date = 2012-07-08

| url = http://www.aqam.net/clc/nutrition/articles/traditional_diet.htm

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091112173307/http://www.aqam.net/clc/nutrition/articles/traditional_diet.htm

| url-status = dead

| archive-date = 2009-11-12

}} The Lemhi Shoshone believed the small red core found in the upper taproot had special powers, notably being able to stop a bear attack. Plains Indians peeled and boiled the root prior to its consumption.

File:Bitterroot, Lewisia rediviva var. rediviva.jpg, California]]

File:Lewisia rediviva iNat-153200132.jpg

Meriwether Lewis ate bitterroot in 1805 and 1806 during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The specimens he brought back were identified and given their scientific name, Lewisia rediviva, by a German-American botanist, Frederick Pursh.

{{Cite web

| title = Trivia | BitterrootHeaven.com

| access-date = 2012-07-08

| url = http://bitterrootheaven.com/trivia.html

| url-status = dead

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120415155730/http://bitterrootheaven.com/trivia.html

| archive-date = 2012-04-15

}}

Based on Lewis and Clark's manuscript, Pursh labeled it "spatlum"; this apparently was actually a Salishan name for "tobacco".{{cite book|author=Bureau of American Ethnology|author-link=Bureau of American Ethnology|title=Handbook of American Indians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hZAUwZk4vgcC|year=1910|page=624|quote= its supposed name was obtained from Lewis's manuscript by Pursh, who gives it as spatlum (Spatlum Aboriginorum). The name, which is Salishan, is here a misapplication, since spatlûm in the Comox dialect (spätlûm in the Kwantlin) is the name for }}

The bitterroot was selected as the Montana state flower in 1895.{{cite book|author=Montana. Dept. of Public Instruction|title=Montana Educational Directory|url=https://archive.org/stream/montanaeducation00mont_5#page/30/mode/1up/search/flower|year=1929|page=30|quote= The Montana state flower, adopted by act of the Legislative Assembly, approved February 27, 1895, is the Bitter Root (Lewisia rediviva).}}

Three major geographic features – the Bitterroot Mountains (running north–south and forming the divide between Idaho and Montana), the Bitterroot Valley, and the Bitterroot River (which flows south–north, terminating in the Clark Fork river in the city of Missoula) – owe the origins of their names to this flower.{{cite book|author=US Forest Service|title=Names of National Forests with Their Origin, Definition, Or Derivation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pas7AQAAMAAJ|year=1909|publisher=Washington|quote= From the plant Lewisia rediviva, which gives name to the Bitter Root mountains and river of Montana and Idaho.}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book

| publisher = Salish Kootenai College, Npustin Press

| isbn = 9780981683416

| last = Johnny Arlee

| title = The Gift of the Bitterroot

| access-date = 2018-01-24

| year = 2008

| url = https://www.lessonsofourland.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Gift-of-the-Bitterroot.pdf

}}

• Moerman. D. Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 {{ISBN|0-88192-453-9}}

{{Wiktionary}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Lewisia rediviva|Lewisia rediviva
  (bitter root)}}
• {{Wikispecies-inline|Lewisia rediviva}}
• [http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=4778 Calflora Database: Lewisia rediviva (Bitter root)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080512022205/http://www.cwnp.org/photopgs/ldoc/lerediviva.html Central Washington Native Plant Society]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080705053808/http://www.lewis-clark.org/bitterroot.htm Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition]
• [https://home.nps.gov/lecl/learn/nature/bitterroot.htm Bitterroot, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail], U.S. Forest Service
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120530121112/http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Environment/CulRes/herbs.htm#Lewisia WSDOT - Ethnobotany - Herbs. Lewisia rediviva - Bitter-root, Sand Rose, Portulacaceae (Purslane Family)]

{{US state flowers}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q4113860}}

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Category:Lewisia

Category:Flora of the Northwestern United States

Category:Flora of the Southwestern United States

Category:Plants used in Native American cuisine

Category:Symbols of Montana

Category:Taxa named by Frederick Traugott Pursh

Category:Flora without expected TNC conservation status