Why is Utah’s state flower a sego lily?
Western Indians deemed the bulb-like roots of sego lily a great delicacy. They taught the Mormon pioneers to use the bulb for badly needed food. This resulted in the sego lily being designated as the Utah State Flower. Sego Lilies, the Utah State flower. This plant is responsible for staving the hunger of the Mormon pioneers many times. They retained their color to some extent after cooking, thus making a colorful dish. The pioneers of 1848–49 ate the sego lily bulb to help ward off starvation.The bulbs are eaten, and also gathered and stored by pocket gopher and other rodents. Western Indians deemed the bulb-like roots of sego lily a great delicacy. They taught the Mormon pioneers to use the bulb for badly needed food. This resulted in the sego lily being designated as the Utah State Flower.In 1911, the Utah State Legislature named the sego lily Utah’s state flower due to its role in saving the lives of many early Utah Mormon pioneers who relied on it as their main source of nutrition.The state flower for Utah is the Sego Lily. These beautiful flowers thrive in Utah’s high desert areas and only bloom through May, June, and July. It was designated the official state flower on March 18, 1911, by the Utah State Legislature.
What is another name for a sego lily?
The Sego Lily (also known as the Mariposa Lily) is a beautiful native plant that is protected in Utah (Sego Lilies are the Utah state flower and you can see them regularly referred to in state symbolism as well as being a revered plant in the Mormon church. Sego and mariposa are two terms used to refer to all of the lilies in this group. Mariposa is a Spanish word for butterfly, referring to its most colorful pollinators. Sego is a Shoshone word, meaning edible bulb, referring to the root organ that the Native American tribe considered a delicacy.Cooked Lily bulbs resemble turnips in flavor, crunchy, sweet, and starchy in texture, often used as a substitute for potatoes. Some say that the taste of the bulb also takes on a mild chestnut flavor, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. They are often used in stir fries, boiled in soups and stews, and even baked.Sego lily bulbs are edible, either raw or cooked, and were used as food by the Cheyenne. The sweet-tasting bulbs were often dried for later use.
What does the sego lily symbolize?
During the First World War the flower became a symbol of peace. Karl E. Fordham’s poem “Sego Lily” portrayed the plant as an image of home, mercy, freedom, and peace for the men and women of Utah who were serving on the battlefields of Europe. Few Utahns today have eaten a sego lily bulb. The Sego Lily (also known as the Mariposa Lily) is a beautiful native plant that is protected in Utah (Sego Lilies are the Utah state flower and you can see them regularly referred to in state symbolism as well as being a revered plant in the Mormon church.Sego lily is the state flower of Utah. The bulbs are edible. Yucca and aloe used to be in this family.
Where do sego lilies grow?
Habitat: Sego lily is found in brushy or grassy slopes in dry areas, typically within open sagebrush country and open ponderosa pine or pinyon-juniper forests. Its elevation range is from 2,300 to 10,000 ft above sea level. Sego lily is adapted to dry, well-drained soils. Sego lily is a perennial native forb that grows 10-20 inches high. It grows from a small egg- shaped bulb, 3/8 to 1 inch in diameter, with a membranous coat. The stem is slender, usually unbranched, and bears 2 to 4 simple, linear, narrow leaves, 7-10 inches long.