Spetlem: Lewisia rediviva
The bitteroot seeds I sown a month ago have sprouted. I looked at the little seedlings and thought about their story; the story of spetlem, from a time when the species wasn’t even yet described!
Lewisia rediviva seedlings; seeds sown January 4th, kept at room temp. for +/- 10 days, then in the garage (+/- 5C). I was planning to put the sowings outdoors but there was no snow for a while…The germination pattern can vary depending on the collection site (origin for these seeds: Butte Co., California)
An excerpt from an article recounting the discovery of the species during the Lewis and Clark expedition, available here: http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/311.
“An old Flathead Indian woman sat weeping on the bank of the In-schu-te-schu, or Red Willow River, in the shadow of the Chi-quil-quil-kane, or Red Mountains, singing a death song for her starving children. The rising sun heard her plaint, and sent a red spirit-bird to comfort her. The bird promised that from each of her falling tears a new flower would grow, tinted with the rose of his feathers and the white of her hair, and springing from a root as bitter as her sorrow but as nourishing as her love. The prophecy came true, and her people called the plant spetlem -“bitter”.”
Lewisia rediviva in flower; with many thanks to the provider of the picture.
How the bitteroot came to be collected during the Lewis and Clark expedition(1804/06), how it was named and by whom, and more importantly how profound this little species was intertwined with Indigenous Peoples lives – I hope you will read about it all in the article provided. It is a great story, especially for a cold, snowy day!
Advice for growing it, and more beautiful pictures, in this thread from SRGC forum: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=15817.0
