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| ## harvest brodiaea {#harvest-brodiaea .Title-Header}                 |
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| *Brodiaea coronaria* (Salisb.) Engl.                                  |
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| Plant Symbol = BRCO3                                                  |
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## *Contributed By: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center*

# Alternate Names

Indian potato, topoderos, walla

# Uses

*Ethnobotanic*: Corms were gathered with a wooden digging stick and
eaten by the Wiyot, Atsugewi, Miwok, Yana and other tribes of
California. The Miwok dug the bulbs about the first of May when the
shoots were just appearing above the ground. They cooked the corms in an
earth oven. The Atsugewi boiled the corms in water and sometimes cooked
them in an earth oven.

# Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status and wetland indicator values.

# Description

***General***: Lily Family (Liliaceae). This herbaceous perennial
reproduces both by black seeds and brown fibrous-coated corms. The
umbel-shaped inflorescence has 3 to 11 flowers\--each flower is
bell-shaped and the color varies from blue-purple, pink-purple to rose.
The perianth lobes are ascending, 12-25 mm, with tips recurved. The
fruit is an ovoid capsule. The 3-5 basal leaves are linear and the scape
is 5-25 cm tall.

# Distribution

This plant was a greater California Central Valley plant at one time
extending in vast numbers across the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.
Due to overgrazing, farming, and urban development this plant is
becoming rare. It is also found in northwestern California, the central
and northern Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Range and British Columbia at an
elevational range from 0 to 1600 m. The plant is found in multiple plant
community types including valley grassland, foothill woodland, mixed
conifer forests, and volcanic
mesas.![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.292361111111111in"
height="2.0833333333333335in"}

# Establishment

If possible, obtain the seed and corms from local sources near where
they will be planted, to maintain genetic diversity of harvest brodiaea
and for the best adaptation to local conditions. Some plant nurseries
may label their corms and seeds according to geographic source. If
planting flowering-size corms, they can be directly planted outside.
Plant the corms in the fall in full sun. The less crowded the more the
corms will offset. Plant them 2 to 4 inches apart and 4 inches deep. A
well-drained soil that is light and loose will produce bigger corms.
Water and weed the patch regularly and protect it from small and large
mammals, insects, and birds. Keep the ground slightly damp. If given too
much water the corms will rot. If it rains fairly regularly, don\'t
water the area. When the leaves on the plants have turned yellow and
dried up, stop watering. Allow the corms to summer bake. The plants
should be well established after one year.

If planting seeds of harvest brodiaea, store the seeds in a paper sack
until autumn. Plant the seeds before October 1st in a container and care
for them for two years before out-planting. Plant the seeds in six-inch
pots because the corms will pull themselves down to the depth they
require. Plant about 100 seeds per pot. Place them on top of the soil
and sprinkle a little soil over them and put one-quarter inch gravel on
top. Set the pots in partial shade so they won\'t dry out so fast. They
can be outside or in a hot house. The seed does not need to be
stratified. Start watering the pots right away and keep them slightly
damp. Fertilize the pots in late winter and early spring and protect the
plants from birds and other animals. If the pots are outside, let the
rains naturally water the pots and in a drought year, supplement with
hand watering. Stop watering as soon as the foliage of the plants turns
yellow. Resume watering the next fall, if rains are insufficient. After
the second year, separate the plants and transplant them two inches
apart in the fall when the corms are dormant, and then water. Grow them
for one or two more years or to bloom, repeating this cycle and then
out-plant them in the autumn.

# Management

The area planted in harvest brodiaea will require regular weeding and
the use of a very weak solution of fertilizer twice only during the
active growth in the spring. The corms can be kept from overcrowding by
thinning them every three years. This involves picking off the cormlets
and replanting them elsewhere in the garden.

There are five major types of indigenous management activities conducted
in California that were designed to ensure future corm production at
traditional gathering sites: 1) conscious breaking off cormlets from the
harvested parent corms and replanting them; 2) sparing whole plants; 3)
harvesting the corms after plants have gone to seed and dumping the
seeds in the hole; 4) burning areas; and 5) irrigation. Periodic digging
and thinning of the corms, and popping off the cormlets and replanting
them may enhance grass nut numbers and densities. Digging corms may in
fact be a form of tillage, which will increase the size of the gathering
tract, aerate the soil, lower weed competition, and prepare the seedbed
to increase seed germination rates. If harvest brodiaea populations
require periodic disturbance to maintain and increase their populations,
then indigenous harvesting regimes if reenacted, may help maintain
populations. At the very least\--populations that become overcrowded and
show reduced vigor should be divided and separated.

# Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

BRCO3 is somewhat available from native plant nurseries within its
range.

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil
Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone
book under "United States Government". The Natural Resources
Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading "Department of
Agriculture."

# References

Anderson, M.K. 1997. *From tillage to table: the indigenous cultivation
of geophytes for food in California*. Journal of Ethnobiology
17(2):149-169.

Barrett, S.A. & E.W. Gifford. 1933. *Miwok material culture*. Bulletin
of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 2(4):117-376.

Garth, T.R. 1953. *Atsugewi ethnography*. University of California
Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 14(2):129-212.

Keator, G. 1993. *Brodiaea*. pp. 1180-1183 IN: The *Jepson manual:
Higher plants of California*. J.C. Hickman (ed.). University of
California Press, Berkeley, California.

Loud, L.L. 1918. *Ethnogeography and archaeology of the Wiyot
territory*. University of California Pub. in American Arch. and
Ethnology. Vol. 14:3. pp. 221-436.

Sapir, E. & L. Spier 1943. *Notes on the culture of the Yana*.
Anthropological Records 3(3):239-298.

USDA, NRCS 1999. *The PLANTS database*. National Plant Data Center,
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. \<http://plants.usda.gov\>. Version: 990405.

# Prepared By & Species Coordinators

*Kat Anderson*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

c/o Plant Science Department, University of California, Davis,
California

*Wayne Roderick*

Former Director of the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Berkeley,
California

Edited: 05dec00 jsp; 29apr03 ahv; 31may06jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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