Sego-lily, sometimes erroneously spelled sago-lily, is a perennial herb of the 

 lily family. The Latin specific name commemorates Thomas Nuttall, the orig- 

 inal discoverer of the plant, who accompanied the Wyeth expedition to the 

 Pacific coast in 1834. The common name sego-lily was adopted from the 

 Indian name for the plant. It ranges from Montana to Oregon, California, 

 and New Mexico. Sego-lily is one of the most conspicuous and beautiful 

 early-blooming flowers of the semidesert and is unusually abundant in Utah, 

 where it often occurs in large, fairly dense stands. This charming and useful 

 plant has been dignified by legislative choice as the State flower of Utah. Sego- 

 lily thrives on rather dry, sandy soils on the open sagebrush foothills and 

 valleys, as well as in open ponderosa pine stands at moderate elevations. 



On most ranges, sego-lily is of relatively little importance for forage, as it 

 consists chiefly of flower stalks with but few leaves, which dry up quickly. 

 Ordinarily, it ranks from poor to fair in palatability for both sheep and cattle, 

 and is worthless for horses. In some localities, however, it rates as good in 

 palatability for sheep. 



The bulblike roots of sego-lily were deemed a great delicacy by the western 

 Indians. This species figured prominently in the history of the Mormon 

 Church. 1 When Brigham Young and his little band of followers emigrated 

 into Salt Lake Valley in 1847, food was very scarce. It is reported that when 

 the Mormon pioneers in Utah faced famine conditions in 1848-49 due to the 

 inroads of crickets, drought, and frost on their grain fields, the sego-lily was 

 an outstanding means of tiding them over. 2 



Before the flowers appear, the leaves of sego-lily are often confused with 

 those of deathcamas (Zygadenus spp.), but may be readily distinguished by 

 the rounded troughlike cross section of their U-shaped leaves, as opposed to 

 the sharply V-shaped leaf of deathcamas. 



MARIPOSAS (Calochor'tusspp.) 



Mariposas, often called mariposa-lilies and mariposa-tulips, are perennials 

 and rank among the most attractive flowers of the lily family (Liliaceae). 

 This genus may be looked upon as the representative in the Western Hemi- 

 sphere of the closely related tulips (Tulipa). The species of Calochortux are 

 not native to the eastern United States, ranging only from Nebraska west to 

 the Pacific, north into Canada, and south to Mexico. There are about 40 to 50 

 species of mariposa in the West, being particularly abundant in California and 

 Oregon; they occur from the dry, open prairies and foothills up to the higher, 

 moist, and shady alpine woods and meadows. 



These plants dry up shortly after blossoming. However, early in the season, 

 when fresh and succulent, their forage is of good palatability for sheep and 

 fair for cattle. Horses, however, as a rule, eat these plants only through acci- 

 dent or necessity. Other species of mariposas besides sego-lily were used for 

 food by the Indians and early settlers, although not so extensively. The bulb- 

 ous roots of mariposas are eaten by pocket gophers and other rodents, which 

 gather and store them for winter use. 



Credit is due David Douglas, the eminent Scotch botanical explorer, as 

 pioneer popularizer of the mariposas, especially for ornamental gardening. He 

 discovered several species and introduced them into England. The mariposas 

 are usually divided into three groups: (1) The typical mariposas with large, 

 bowl-like or tulip-shaped flowers; (2) the star mariposas with wide, open, 

 smaller flowers; and (3) the globe mariposas with nodding, globular flowers. 



Mariposas usually have branched, more or less leafy stems with husk-coated, 

 bulblike roots with a few, basal, narrow, somewhat grasslike leaves. The usu- 

 ally several, showy flowers are borne at the top of the flower stalks and are 

 white, yellow-lilac, or bluish colored, or often a mixture of several of these 

 colors, with a gland at the base of each petal. In some of the smaller species, 

 the petals are quite hairy on the inside and are commonly and appropriately 

 called cats-ears. 



1 Saunders, C. F. WESTERN WILD FLOWERS AND THEIR STORIES. 320 pp., illus. Garden 

 City. N. Y. 1933. 



- Bennion, D. EVER EAT SEGO LILY ROOTS? The Deseret News, sec. 3, pt. V. (Mar. 23) 

 1935. 



