Mariposa Lilies
While out doing trailwork on the Dewdrop Trail, we came along a south-facing slope. Sagebrush mariposa lilies dotted the rocky hillside. The flowers stood about 40 cm high and each had a single lavender flower.
The whole plant is edible and because of this, the flower has been disappearing from areas where cattle graze. First nations people harvested the bulbs and ate them raw or cooked.
We see the perennial mariposas on grassland slopes and in ponderosa pine forests in July. It always seems a bit of a miracle to see such a delicate flower in the hottest, driest spots of the valley slopes.