Spokane Valley, WA (Zone 5b) | April 2012 | neutral
I know the prior post was many years ago, so this may be of little interest to you now but may help others.
Currently, Al...Read Moreplains.com carries multiple varieties of this highly prized Inter-mountain/N. Rockies native flower. I can't vouch for them and have no connection with them, but at least they seem to carry the seeds for now (as well as some other fairly hard to find & sometimes extremely rate Western wild flowers). Good luck!
Baa's notes on Lewsia pygmaea, which I saw in the wild in British Columbia, inspired me to add the other Lewsia species which grows in Br...Read Moreitish Columbia.
This plant is known as Bitterroot, and the roots were an important food to the Interior peoples, but Europeans found them excessively bitter.
The plants grow in full sun in dry stony ground. The leaves are short and fleshy, and die off before the flowers appear. The flowers are a picture, bright pink to white scattered over the bare stony ground.
The latin name rediviva is an odd one. Meriwether Lewis, who first collected the plant in Montana in 1806, saved a pressed dried specimen. When it was examined months later, the root still showed signs of life. When planted it then grew afresh and the name rediviva, means 'restored to life'.
I don't know if this plant is in cultivation. I would love to grow it if anyone knows of a source for its seed?
I know the prior post was many years ago, so this may be of little interest to you now but may help others.
Currently, Al...Read More
Baa's notes on Lewsia pygmaea, which I saw in the wild in British Columbia, inspired me to add the other Lewsia species which grows in Br...Read More