Brodiaea_coronaria

<i>Brodiaea coronaria</i>

Brodiaea coronaria

Species of tree

Brodiaea coronaria is the type species of Brodiaea[2] and also known by the common names harvest brodiaea and crown brodiaea.[3][4] It is native to western North America from British Columbia to northern California, where it grows in mountains and grasslands.

Quick Facts Brodiaea coronaria, Scientific classification ...

Description

Close-up of flower

Brodiaea coronaria is a perennial herb growing from a corm and producing an erect inflorescence with a few basal leaves. The inflorescence is up to about 25 centimeters (10 inches) tall and bears lilylike flowers on an array of pedicels.

Each flower is a tube several centimeters long opening into a bell-shaped corolla of six bright purple lobes each up to 3 cm (1 in) long. In the center are three stamens and whitish sterile stamens known as staminodes.

Taxonomy

Nomenclature

See also: Nomenclature of Brodiaea

The history of the scientific name of this species is somewhat tangled. The plant was first collected by Archibald Menzies during the Vancouver Expedition, and published as Hookera coronaria by Richard Salisbury in Paradisus Londinensis early in 1808.[5] However, Salisbury had fallen out with fellow botanist James Edward Smith. Smith first published a moss genus, Hookeria, and then published a description of Salisbury's Hookera coronaria as Brodiaea grandiflora.[6]

If it was Smith's intention to replace Salisbury's name, as has been suggested,[6] it was partly successful, since although Salisbury's Hookera coronaria has priority over Smith's Brodiaea grandiflora, names as similar as Hookera and Hookeria are considered to be confusing and a formal proposal to conserve the names Brodiaea and Hookeria over the name Hookera was accepted.[7] However, Salisbury's epithet coronaria still stands since Smith's Brodiaea grandiflora is now considered to have been an illegitimate name when published. In 1917, after the Kew Rule had vanished from botanical nomenclature, Willis Jepson formally published the combination Brodiaea coronaria, now accepted as the botanical name for this species.[1]

Synonyms

Synonyms, in full or in part, include:[8]

  • Hookera coronaria Salisb. (basionym)
  • Hookera grandiflora (Sm.) Kuntze
  • Brodiaea grandiflora Sm.
  • Hookera rosea Greene
  • Brodiaea rosea (Greene) Baker

Subspecies

There are two subspecies of this plant:

  • Brodiaea coronaria subsp. coronaria – crown brodiaea[9]
  • Brodiaea coronaria subsp. rosea – Indian Valley brodiaea; a rare pink-flowered subspecies endemic to a small region in the Inner North California Coast Ranges (Tehama, Glenn, and Lake Counties) in northwestern California.[10][11]

Uses

Native Americans and early European settlers of the continent harvested the small bulbs for food.[12] They are edible raw, with a nutty or celery-like taste.[13]

References

  1. [1]
    "Brodiaea coronaria (Salisb.) Jeps., Madroño 1: 61 (1917)". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  2. [2]
    "Brodiaea". Index Nominum Genericorum. International Association for Plant Taxonomy. 9 February 1996. Retrieved 27 June 2008.
  3. [3]
    Pojar, Jim; MacKinnon, Andy (1994). Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Canada: Lone Pine Publishing. p. 107.
  4. [4]
    USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Brodiaea coronaria". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 27 June 2008.
  5. [5]
    "Hookera coronaria". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. 27 June 2008.
  6. [6]
    Boulger, George Simonds (1897). "Salisbury, Richard Anthony" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  7. [7]
    Rickett, H.W. & Stafleu, F.A. (1959). "Nomina generica conservanda et rejicienda spermatophytorum". Taxon. 8 (7): 213–243. doi:10.2307/1217883. JSTOR 1217883.
  8. [8]
    "Search for name". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  9. [9]
    USDA Plants Profile for Brodiaea coronaria ssp. coronaria (crown brodiaea)
  10. [10]
    Jepson Manual — Brodiaea coronaria ssp. rosea
  11. [11]
    CalFlora Database — Brodiaea coronaria ssp. rosea. accessed 8.2.2013
  12. [12]
    Fagan, Damian (2019). Wildflowers of Oregon: A Field Guide to Over 400 Wildflowers, Trees, and Shrubs of the Coast, Cascades, and High Desert. Guilford, CT: FalconGuides. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-4930-3633-2. OCLC 1073035766.
  13. [13]
    Benoliel, Doug (2011). Northwest Foraging: The Classic Guide to Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest (Rev. and updated ed.). Seattle, WA: Skipstone. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-59485-366-1. OCLC 668195076.

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