Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy :: Native Plant Information (original) (raw)

Latin derivation:
Genus: _Triteleia_- derived from the Greek tri, ‘three” and teleios, “perfect” the floral parts being in 3's

Species: _laxa_- growing loosely, probably referring to the flowers

Common Name: Ithuriel was an angel in Milton's Paradise Lost who found Satan squatting like a toad, close at the ear of Eve, and transformed him by a touch of his spear to his proper form. The plant as it emerges from the soil in the spring is reminiscent of a spear.

Plant Family: Liliacea, the Lily family
• Family Characteristics: Perennials to trees. Growing from bulb, corm, rhizome, caudex. Stems generally underground. Leaves generally basal linear, alternate. Flowers generally bisexual, radial with 6 petals, 6 stamens and a superior ovary.

Description of plant:
• Grows from bulb or corm.
• Leaves 20 - 40 cm long, 4 - 25 cm wide.
• Inflorescence 10 - 70 cm high.
• Flowers are blue, blue-purple, or white.

Habitat: Open forest, woodlands, grasslands to 4500'. Often in the coastal sage scrub.

Ethnobotanical information: The corms can be eaten both raw and cooked.