Glacier Lily

Glacier Lily
(Erythronium grandiflorum)

Emily Rose did take her nose out of her book for a little while. She noticed the fields of Glacier Lilies and Spring Beauty and had to try her hand at photography. Glacier Lilies spring up soon after the snow is gone.

Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia the Inland Northwest says, the "Yellow glacier lily was a very important rood vegetable, and the dried bulbs were also an important trading item for Interior Salish peoples. They gathered the bulbs in June to August. These bulbs are inedible when raw, but prolonged steaming, such as in pit cooking , converts their indigestible carbohydrat, inulin, into edible fructose. Drying also helps this process. Kuhnlein and Turner (1991) note that a St'at'imc man observed grizzlies digging yellow glacier lilies and letting them wilt on the ground, then returning a few days later to eat them. Evidently bears were aware of the increased sweetness of the lilies after exposure to air."