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Home , Achomawi, Brodiaea, Calochortus, Camassia, Camassia quamash, Chlorogalum

BEAUTY, BOUNTY, AND BIODIVERSITY: THE STORY OF INDIANS’ RELATIONSHIP WITH EDIBLE NATIVE GEOPHYTES by M. Kat Anderson and Frank K. Lake

alifornia supported a great diversity of with edible underground stor- age organs available to CIndian tribes. Together, , fish and meat made up an indig- enous diet that was well-rounded, diverse, and relatively secure. The edible underground parts possessed by these plants are classified as , , taproots, tubers and rhi- zomes, and when conditions turn unfavorable (too cold or too dry), the above-ground stems die back and the underground organs remain alive. Botanists and ecologists call the plants that employ this strategy geophytes. Indians often call them Indian potatoes or “root foods” be- cause they are hidden under the ground. Geophytes were an impor- tant source of for indigenous people throughout California.

STAPLE FOOD CROP In pre-contact California there were dozens of of geophytes gathered for their edible under- ground storage organs in multiple plant communities from the salt marshes, to the deserts, to chapar- ral, to the open understories of co- niferous and woodlands. For example: the dug the bulbs of harebell (Campanula prenanthoides) in winter and early spring for food in the vicinity of tan ; the Wailaki and har- TOP: Raw camas ( sp.) bulbs and (Brodiaea and spp.) corms on vested the bulbs of the fawn lily a bed of Pacific big leaf maple leaves prior to baking them in an earth oven. Photograph ( oregonum) in the open- by Frank K. Lake, 2005. • BOTTOM LEFT: A bounty of camas ( subsp. ings amongst interior live oaks; and breviflora) for food. Photograph by Heron Brae, 2012. The camas , found several the Kashaya Pomo unearthed the inches below the earth’s surface, is about the size of a large hazelnut, but can grow as large tubers of elegant piperia (Piperia as a walnut. Camas (C. leichtlinii subsp. suksdorfii and C. quamash subsp. breviflora) produces few offsets, but Native people note that when dug repeatedly and encouraged, elegans) in dry areas between Cali- they tend to divide. • BOTTOM RIGHT: Cooked camas (Camassia sp.) bulbs and brodiaea fornia black oaks. Some of the most (Brodiaea and Triteleia spp.) corms wrapped in a bed of Pacific big leaf maple leaves after important genera gathered by many baking them in an earth oven. Photograph by Frank K. Lake, 2005.

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V44_3_book.pmd 44 2/20/17, 5:17 AM tribes include Allium, Brodiaea, Camassia, , Calochortus, , , Lomatium, Perideridia, Sanicula, and Triteleia. Indian potatoes were not only di- verse, but also provided a of tastes to please the palate from slightly bitter, to mildly nutty, to sweet. They were eaten raw, boiled, baked, or steamed and then mashed, made into cakes similar to a frittata, bread or biscuits. Many of these geo- phytes were stored in their raw state in great quantities for later cooking and consumption or stored after bak- ing, roasting and/or drying them. The use of geophytes as part of the regular human diet in California

ABOVE RIGHT: Alferetta and Grapevine Tom, , digging the edible, medicinal, and ceremonial tubers of búlidum’, (Lomatium californicum). A hardwood digging stick was the most common digging implement used up and down California to pry millions of plump, juicy bulbs, corms and tubers from the earth. Photograph by J.P. Harrington, Catalog number JPH-CA-AC-18. Courtesy of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, circa 1931-32. • ABOVE LEFT: A close-up of the tubers of búlidum’ (L. californicum), one of eight lomatiums with edible tubers eaten by California Indian tribes. Others include Wasatch desertparsley (L. bicolor var. leptocarpum), Canby’s lomatium (L. canbyi), Gray’s lomatium (L. grayi), bigseed biscuitroot (L. macrocarpum), biscuitroot (L. nevadense), Indian biscuitroot (L. piperi), and nineleaf biscuitroot (L. triternatum). Photograph by J.P. Harrington, Catalog number JPH-CA-AC-19. Courtesy of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, circa 1931-32. • RIGHT: Edible, dried, peeled taproots of bigseed biscuitroot (L. macrocarpum), some of which have been ground into flour. They will be combined with dried huckleberries and nut flour to make pinch cakes. Photograph by Heron Brae, 2013.

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V44_3_book.pmd 45 2/20/17, 5:17 AM dars, denoting a have been due, in part, to human predictable, re- management of the plants and their newable food habitats. source. For ex- ample, one of the THE HARVEST 12 moons of the Central Pomo Gathering the edible parts of geo- year Putitcda (our phytes, hidden below the surface of May) meant “ed- the soil, required extraction with a ible bulbs ripen- digging stick sharpened to a point. ing.” These stor- While digging time spanned the age organs also whole year, May to late October was have high nutri- the peak season. Harvesting differ- tional value, con- ent genera of geophytes differed by taining significant tribe and area. For example, among amounts of fiber, the , of northwestern Califor- and complex car- nia, Brodiaea, Calochortus, Dichelo- bohydrates. stemma, and Triteleia were dug in Before the sub- the spring to summer and Lilium stantial ecological species in the fall. Traditional gath- changes brought ering sites were visited annually, by European and areas were specifically owned settlement, many and maintained by particular fami- of the geophytes lies and passed down intergenera- of California had tionally. all of the attri- Despite relatively intensive, an- butes of a staple nual gathering, populations of geo- food crop: they phytes remained robust. This was were abundant, due in part to the gatherers’ aware- widespread, stor- ness of harvesting methods and how able, intensifi- they affected the plant’s regenera- able, and nourish- tion and the overall health of the ing. As little as habitat. Always thinking about the 200 years ago, harvest into the future, tribes made many areas in sure that the harvest would help TOP: Columbia lily (Lilium columbianum) and other lilies have California were increase future yields. bulb scales which readily separate and scatter in the digging clothed in geo- When indigenous people har- process. The bulbs of this species and at least three other lilies were eaten by California Indian tribes including leopard lily phyte vested geophytes, they did more than (L. pardalinum), alpine lily (L. parvum), and lily during the spring just retrieve the largest storage or- (L. washingtonianum). • BOTTOM: The larger bulbs of checker lily and summer— gans for consumption. They re- ( affinis) were roasted in ashes or baked in earth purple patches of planted the smaller bulblets, - ovens, and mashed and made into cakes by various tribes. It blue dicks, orange lets, tuber fragments, and bulb has numerous rice-grain bulblets that scatter when dug. At least three other were gathered for food: brown bells swaths of tiger scales; they tilled the soil to facili- (F. micrantha), yellow fritillary (F. pudica), and scarlet fritillary lily, yellow car- tate the growth of the new plants; (F. recurva). Photographs by Fred Sharpe, 2007. pets of common weeded non-desired plants; and they goldenstars, and scattered the contained within is very old. The archeological record snowy areas of wild carrots. Early the dried pods to enhance re- shows that geophyte harvesting is at reports suggest that wildflowers with production. A grassland or coastal least 10,000 years old on the Chan- storage organs were much more subject to this kind of man- nel Islands and that bulbs, corms, prevalent historically and gathered agement might not show overt signs and tubers were more or less har- in prodigious amounts. As will be of human manipulation, but the val- vested in most if not all regions of discussed, the abundance of edible ued foods would likely have broader the state during the last several thou- geophyte populations observed in distributions and higher population sand years. This storage organ had certain areas around the time of con- numbers than would be the case in its own month in many tribal calen- tact (circa AD 1840–1850s) may the absence of any tribal manage-

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V44_3_book.pmd 46 2/20/17, 5:17 AM UPPER LEFT: Blue dicks has dozens of different names in Indian languages and was probably the most widely eaten geophyte in California. The corms are eaten raw, boiled, or roasted in ashes. Photograph by M. Kat Anderson, 1988. • LOWER LEFT: A single blue dicks plant can produce a large number of both corms and cormlets. This and other underground swollen stems were eaten in great quantity and gathered at the same sites year after year by employing harvesting and management strategies designed to benefit populations and ensure their continuation. One of these techniques was to replant the cormlets after digging, while another is described by Mono elder Melba Beecher to ensure re-seeding: “The bulb [Dichelostemma capitatum] is harvested in late summer or early fall when the blooms are gone.” Photograph by Kat Anderson, 1992. • RIGHT: Ross Stone, Big Pine Paiute, gathering nahavita, also known as blue dicks (D. capitatum) corms, a favorite traditional Paiute food on the east side of the . Photograph by Bill Helmer, 2005. All of the four other Dichelostemma spp. were also dug and eaten by California Indian tribes including fork-toothed ookow (D. congestum), firecracker (D. ida-maia), wild (D. multiflorum), and twining brodiaea (D. volubile).

ment. Many tribal harvesters learned ductive adaptations. Evolving in en- erwise separated from the parent from, or emulated the digging-re- vironments in which drought, fire, structure could grow into geneti- lated disturbances of wildlife, such and herbivory were common, geo- cally identical plants. With these ad- as gophers or . phytes all developed clonal struc- aptations, disturbances, especially The harvest of geophytes could tures—offsets or propagules in the herbivory, that might threaten the be coupled closely with propagation form of scales, bulbils, bulblets, or existence of the parent plant were because of the nature of their repro- cormlets—which if severed or oth- also likely to separate and disperse

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V44_3_book.pmd 47 2/20/17, 5:17 AM the propagules—thus ensuring the cellent subjects for food intensifica- from getting too clumped and thus continuation of the genome. In feast- tion strategies. maximizing production. Perhaps, ing upon these highly nutritious Aerated and loosened with dig- most importantly, indigenous foods, gophers, voles, moles, bears, ging sticks, the soil had a higher people made conscious decisions deer, or elk would simultaneously moisture-holding capacity and be- about what to harvest and what to be acting as predators and dispers- came a better environment for seed leave behind, based on accumulated ers. Native people who exploited germination and propagule growth. knowledge about the plants’ repro- geophytes as food were taking ad- Native people also managed plant duction and adaptive traits. In the vantage of the pre-existing adapta- density, preferentially harvesting the case of blue dicks, for example, tions that made most geophytes ex- densest patches to keep the plants Leah Harper, Nor-Rel-Muk (pers. comm. 2003) explained how she harvested the largest organs and left in the soil the immature ones: “Grandma told us how to take the big bulb and leave the babies. And put them back in.” Human geophyte harvesters could also benefit the plants’ sexual repro- duction by properly timing the har- vest. When dug after seeds had ma- tured, this process could facilitate dispersal of the seeds, which were more likely to find safe germination sites in tilled soil. It was a common practice to take this facilitation a step further by placing broken stems with seed pods into the holes before covering them. Undesirable plants were also weeded out to favor geo- phytes at many gathering sites—thus reducing competition and increas- ing site productivity. Through observation and experi- mentation, Native in Cali- fornia learned a great deal about the ecological requirements of the ed- ible geophytes. The most important conclusion they came to was that fire was good for many of the “root foods,” which included checker lil- ies, leopard lilies, sanicles, and wild carrots, among others. By burning geophyte habitats, Indians could maintain the sunny environments that most required, eliminate com- petition, reduce accumulated leaf lit- ter and duff, that could block or Ruby Pomona, North Fork Mono, with the edible tana or turkey pea (Sanicula tuberosa) dug in open black oak and ponderosa pine stands in Sierra National . According to hinder their emergence each year, Ruby (pers. comm. 1989), tana, as well as a brodiaea with a purple flower, and wild carrot and thus enhance reproduction. The (Perideridia spp.), “came up better after a burn.” The small tuber was gathered widely by results were manifested at both the the Mono, Nisenan, Pomo, , Sierra Miwuk, and Wailaki and it is still relished today individual and population levels: in- and generally eaten raw. Already by 1932, Salinan consultants, Maria and David Mora, dividual plants grew more vigor- relayed to interviewer John P. Harrington that tr’ôtêmák (Sanicula tuberosa) is “scarce now.” Photograph by M. Kat Anderson, 2006. At least two other sanicles were dug ously, producing larger or more nu- for their edible tubers, sharptooth blacksnakeroot (S. arguta) and poison sanicle (S. merous underground storage organs, bipinnata). and populations were enlarged rela-

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V44_3_book.pmd 48 2/20/17, 5:17 AM toes grow in bunches and ripen big...They go to find things there.” Today Native elders equate produc- tive bulb collection areas with de- liberate burning or wildfires. Because of their underground storage organs, geophytes are well adapted to withstand the effects of fire. Growing deep in soil, the bulbs, corms, and rhizomes are protected and insulated from the heat. Fire benefits geophytes in a number of ways, and are actually dependent on its regular occurrence. One hypothesis is that for some geophyte species, fire confers its ben- eficial effects directly to the plants through heat. Their underground storage organs have contractile roots, and thus can pull themselves down deeper in the soil when stimulated by the heat of a fire. When this hap- pens, the scales, bulblets, or cormlets attached to the main “mother” or- gan are stripped off. While attached, the growth of these clones is sup- pressed; when separated, they grow into new plants. In this direct way, therefore, fire promotes asexual re- production and enlargement of population sizes. Geophytes receive

tive to what would have been the gist J.W. Duncan equated the case without fire. burning of oak areas with motive of In the historical and ethnographic fostering more bulbs and greens. Lin- record there are accounts of Indians guist Alice Shepherd (1989:411) re- burning to enhance the geophyte corded for the : “Where the harvest. For example, anthropolo- ground has been burned, wild pota-

ABOVE: Lois Conner Bohna (North Fork Mono/Chukchansi) sustainably harvesting wavyleaf soap plant () bulbs, another traditional food, by breaking them off at the root crowns and leaving them behind to grow into new plants. This was also a common practice among various Sierra Miwuk and cultural groups. Photograph by M. Kat Anderson, North Fork, 2008. At least three other soap plants were harvested for food including narrowleaf soap plant (C. angustifolium), smallflower soap plant (C. parviflorum), and Santa Lucia purple amole (C. purpureum var. purpureum). • RIGHT: Lois Conner Bohna (North Fork Mono/Chukchansi) taking two additional conservation-minded steps. She scattered the seeds into the hole and covered them and the remaining root crowns with additional soil. This North Fork site had been burned the year before. She remarked: “Where it has been burned I find plants that are doubles, triples, and bigger clusters, and the bulbs are huge.” Photograph by M. Kat Anderson, 2008.

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V44_3_book.pmd 49 2/20/17, 5:17 AM Tanya Spoonhunter, Dorothy Stewart, Jannah Terrazas, and Margaret Romero of the Big Pine Paiute tribe, displaying nahavita (Dichelostemma capitatum) corms that they will plant on their reservation in a large community garden plot and for a conservation field trial, October 2005. This effort is an example of diverse tribes bringing back traditional stewardship practices in various parts of California. Photograph by M. Kat Anderson.

most of the benefits of fire indirectly, crease by the light-absorbing black changed the soil’s texture or physi- however, through fire’s effects on color of the carbon that results from cal properties in ways that benefited the environment or habitat in which burning. Such warming is necessary geophyte growth and/or facilitated they live. Thick layers of leaf litter for both vegetative growth and harvest by humans. The bi-product and duff can inhibit or even prevent flower bud differentiation, and it also of burning woody material results geophyte growth. The bulbs remain provides the sequence of cold– in the production of charcoal or alive in the soil, but the accumu- warm–cold temperatures that most “biochar” that serves to increase soil lated dead biomass blocks the heat edible geophytes in California need porosity, nutrient retention and and light that would stimulate for good bulb development. Warmer moisture holding capacity in addi- growth, and may even act as a physi- soil temperatures in the spring pro- tion to increasing soil texture com- cal barrier for sprouting. In over- mote more flower buds, and this plexity. Today, the traditional ben- grown areas, bulbs can sit in the soil means more dry fruits with seeds eficial uses of biochar are being in- bank for decades without growing. that can grow into new plants. Fire’s vestigated and technologically de- After the leaf litter and other bio- cleansing properties, are therefore, veloped for modern garden and ag- mass covering the soil are eliminated a mechanism which promotes larger ricultural uses. by fire, however, the plants are able and denser geophyte patches. Probably the most important ef- to push through the blackened earth. Fire also impacts geophytes fect of fire on geophytes is to main- When fire reduces duff and litter, through its effects on the soil. Burn- tain (or increase) the size of the the sun can warm the soil thoroughly ing releases a flush of nutrients, but areas in which the environmental where the warming effect may in- Indian burning may also have conditions are suitable for geophyte

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V44_3_book.pmd 50 2/20/17, 5:17 AM growth. To a great extent, this means there has been a general decline in Phytologist 197(1): 19-35. simply eliminating or suppressing geophyte populations, and today Coomes, O.T. and B.C. Miltner. 2016. the growth of plants that compete there are numerous rare and endan- Indigenous charcoal and biochar with geophytes for light. Most ed- gered geophyte taxa in California; production: Potential for soil im- provement under shifting cultivation ible geophytes require full or partial this decline may be tied not only to systems. Land Degradation & Devel- exposure to the sun to grow and habitat loss and fragmentation, but opment 00:1-11. DOI: 10.1002/ reproduce properly. The flowering also to the termination of the former ldr.2500 and bulbing of wild onions (Allium indigenous disturbance and manage- Einert, A.E. and C.O. Box. 1967. Ef- spp.) and wild lilies (Lilium spp.), ment regimes under which the geo- fects of light intensity on flower bud for example, are greatly affected by phytes most recently evolved. abortion and plant growth of Lilium how much light they receive. In the While few indigenous people longiflorum. Proceedings of the Ameri- lily , low light intensities usu- gather or manage root foods today, can Society for Horticultural Science ally result in flower abortion. The this is changing. Tribes are renew- 90:427-432. high light requirements of most geo- ing their gathering rights and prac- Gill, K. 2014. Seasons of change: using phytes are a primary reason for their tices, forming new collaborations seasonal morphological changes in occurrence in open habitats. When with land management entities, set- Brodiaea corms to determine season of harvest from archaeobotanical trees or brush encroach on open ting up ethnobotanical gardens, cre- remains. American Antiquity 79(4): lands and create unfavorable shaded ating their own land trusts, restor- 638-654. conditions, camas (Camassia spp.), ing digging, and returning fire to Harrington, J.P. 1932. Tobacco among leopard lily (Lilium pardalinum), their reservations, rancherias, and the Karok Indians of California. Bu- wild onions, and other geophytes other traditional lands. Many tribes reau of American Ethnology Bulletin remain as a corm and bulb bank in are incorporating food security in- No. 94. Smithsonian Institution, the soil, their growth suppressed. terests with landscape restoration Washington, D.C. With fire, plants are released from strategies. An example is thinning Le Nard, M. and A.A. De Hertogh. the shaded environments, and grow of dense trees and shrubs and pre- 1993. Bulb growth and development and flower vigorously. Flowering scribed burning to meet the dual and flowering. In: The Physiology of greatly benefited and other objectives of hazardous fuels reduc- Flower Bulbs. A. De Hertogh and M. pollinators. Botanist Mark Skinner tion and the re-establishment of ed- Le Nard (eds.), pp. 29-43. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, The (pers. comm. 2007) said: “Burning ible geophytes aligned with broader Netherlands. definitely encourages (the growth tribal resource objectives. These ef- Major, J. 2013. Biochar: A new soil of) many North American Lilium forts are helping to restore the management tool for farmers and taxa. Some are adapted to frequent beauty, bounty, and biodiversity of gardeners. International Biochar Ini- fires (L. pyrophilum, L. iridollae, L. California landscapes. tiative and Appalachian Sustainable catesbaei), some proliferate after fires Development Bulletin. 12 p. (L. washingtonianum). I’m sure it’s REFERENCES Nabhan, G.P., D. Walker, and A.M. nutrient availability to some degree, Moreno 2010. Biocultural and eco- but mostly it’s light availability that Anderson, M.K. 1997. From tillage to gastronomic restoration: The renew- drives that phenomenon.” table: The indigenous cultivation of ing America’s Food Traditions Alli- geophytes for food in California. ance. Ecological Restoration 28 (3): Journal of Ethnobiology 17(2):149- 266-279. CONCLUSIONS 169. Shepherd, A. 1989. Wintu texts. Uni- Anderson, M.K. and D.L. Rowney. versity of California Publications in Tribal gathering secured huge 1998. California geophytes: Ecology, Linguistics Vol. 117. University of quantities of subterranean plant ethnobotany, and conservation. California Press, Berkeley, CA. parts by revisiting the same tradi- Fremontia 26(1):12-18. Stone, E.C. 1951. The stimulative ef- tional gathering sites. Tribal harvest- ______. 1999. The edible plant fect of fire on the flowering of the ing and management strategies were Dichelostemma capitatum: its vegeta- golden brodiaea (Brodiaea ixioides designed to benefit populations and tive reproduction response to differ- Wats. var. lugens Jeps.). Ecology ensure their continuation with eco- ent indigenous harvesting regimes 32(3):534-537. logical consequences for species, in California. Restoration Ecology 7(3):231-240. populations, and plant communi- M. Kat Anderson, USDA NRCS, Califor- Clarke, P.J., M.J. Lawes, J.J. Midgley, ties. The Native gathering and man- B.B. Lamont, F. Ojeda, G.E. Burrows, nia State Office, 430 G. St., Davis, CA agement systems have been in place N.J. Enright, and K.J.E. Knox. 2013. 95616; [email protected]; Frank long enough to influence what con- Resprouting as a key functional trait: K. Lake, USFS Orleans Ranger Station, stituted fitness for evolving geophyte How buds, protection and resources P.O. Box 410, Orleans, CA 95556; species. Over the last two centuries, drive persistence after fire. New [email protected]

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