''Triteleia laxa'' (previously ''Brodiaea laxa'') is a triplet lily known by several common names, including Ithuriel's spear, common triteleia and grassnut. It is native to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

where it is a common wildflower, and it is occasionally found in southwestern

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. It bears a tall, naked stem topped with a spray of smaller stalks, each ending in a purple or blue flower. The flower is tubular, opening into a sharply six-pointed star. The plant grows from a

corm A corm, bulbo-tuber, or bulbotuber is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ that some plants use to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat (perennation). The word ' ...

which is edible and similar in taste and use as the

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

. The most used common name for the species, Ithuriel's spear, is a reference to the angel

Ithuriel Ithuriel is an angel mentioned in John Milton's epic poem ''Paradise Lost''. ''Paradise Lost'' In ''Paradise Lost'', Ithuriel is one of two angels (the other being Zephon) charged by the archangel Gabriel to go in search of Satan, who is loose i ...

from

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

's ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

''.

Cultivation

Hardiness: USDA 6-10

Etymology

The genus name ''Triteleia'' is derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and means 'triplicate', a reference to its flower parts, which are in multiples of three. The epithet ''laxa'' means 'open', 'uncrowded', 'distant', 'spreading', or 'lax'.Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. (hardback), (paperback). pp 232, 388 It is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

adjective , meaning 'flaccid, loose'.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentSpecies accountPhoto galleryEthnobotany
laxa Flora of California Flora of Oregon Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the Central Valley (California) Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area Plants described in 1835 Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Asparagaceae-stub