Flowers
Photo of the Day ~ “Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria lanceolata) seed pod holds promises of colorful blooms for spring!”
Sometimes called “rice root” or “mission bells”, chocolate lillies are found growing in open dry woodlands and in coastal meadows ranging from southern British Columbia to California.
On San Juan Island, WA, the best place to find them is at San Juan Island National Historical Park’s American Camp on the prairie or look for them at English Camp, along the trail up Young Hill.
The bulbs of the chocolate lily are edible and were eaten or used as a trade item by many Coast and Interior Salish peoples.
Read more about them here: http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_fraf2.pdf
Bugging You From San Juan Island 
So many of the pictures of flora I’ve seen posted lately are from the northwestern US and southwestern Canada. At least you have cool weather and rain. In Texas we’ve been in a drought for months and much of the land is looking parched and barren.
Have you tasted the bulbs of the chocolate lily? I’ve sampled some wild things here that are edible but most haven’t been tasty. (One exception is pecans, and another is morel mushrooms.)
Steve Schwartzman
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com
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