Wildflower Wednesday: Dichelostemma capitatum

They have been blooming in the yard and out of it: slender stems and leaves topped by a cluster of ethereal blooms.  Flowers are a translucent lavender-blue with pale yellow stigma and white stamens.

I first noticed the leaves and stems last year.  Being a lover of bulbs and their relatives, I said to myself, "that looks like a bulbous sort of plant..."  I kept an eye on them, but nothing bloomed.  A week or so ago, my sister came to tell me about the little blue flowers she had found...  They are finally in bloom this spring and making up for last year, seemingly!

When I decided to post them this morning for Wildflower Wednesday, I thought I had better try once again to ID them.  Results: Dichelostemma capitatum, commonly called Blue Dicks.  It's a beauty.  Said to grow to around 2 ft (61 cm) tall, those in the yard are somewhat smaller at this point.  Wild populations fluctuate considerably, being strongest after fire or other natural soil disturbance.  The plants fare better with some cultivation and were, in fact, cultivated as a food starch source by native Americans.  (Most of the above information is from Wikepedia, of course!)

As I say, the species thrives where the corms can be spread by soil disturbance.  I strongly suspect that our (very desert) property was 'dozed to make it presentable when it went on the market in 2013.  We have had a number of "disturbed soil" types popping up, for instance the little chinchweed, a friendly face and hard to call a weed though it spread like one last summer...  And now Blue Dicks - most emphatically not a weed but a classy little wildflower!

Although the Dichelostemma genus has been bounced around among the Brodiaeas and Tritelias, I believe that D. capitatum remains the correct  name.

I will link this, my first Wildflower Wednesday post with Gail's fifth anniversary for the meme (congratulations, Gail!) at Clay and Limestone.

Happy Wednesday!