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.
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]
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]
^Pojar, Jim; MacKinnon, Andy (1994). Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Canada: Lone Pine Publishing. p. 107.
^USDA, NRCS (n.d.).
"Brodiaea coronaria". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 27 June 2008.