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| ## white brodiaea {#white-brodiaea .Title-Header}                     |
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| *Triteleia hyacinthina* (Lindl.) Greene                               |
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| Plant Symbol = TRHY3                                                  |
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Contributed by: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & East Bay Regional
Parks Botanic Garden

### ![](media/image2.png){width="2.2909722222222224in" height="2.2395833333333335in"}

## Alternate Names

White-flowered grassnut

## Uses

*Ethnobotanic*: Corms were dug with a digging stick and eaten either
raw, roasted, baked in an earth oven, or boiled by tribes in California
including the Southern Maidu, Northern Maidu, Washoe, Pomo, Sierra
Miwok, Atsugewi, and Northern Paiute.

## Status

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

## Description

*General*: Lily Family (Liliaceae). The white or bluish-white
hyacinth-like flowers are in an umbel (in a head) of capitate clusters,
each with 10 to 40 flowers. The flowers have green mid-veins. The basal
leaves are linear and grasslike and wither with flowering. The scape is
3-6 dm tall. This perennial plant also vegetatively propagates from tan,
fibrous-coated corms.

## Distribution

For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this
species on the PLANTS Web site. The plant is found in grasslands,
close-cone pine forests, foothill woodland, and vernally wet meadows
from zero to 2,000 m. The plant is found in the Central Valley, central
western California, the Sierra Nevada, northwestern California, and the
Cascade Range, up to Vancouver Island and east to Idaho.

## Establishment

If possible, obtain the seed and corms from local sources to maintain
genetic diversity of white brodiaea and for the best adaptation to local
conditions. Some 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 white brodiaea, store the seeds in a paper bag
until autumn. Plant the seeds before October 1st in a container and care
for them for two years before planting them outside in the ground. Plant
the seeds in six-inch (or bigger) 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.
Then water them. Grow them for one more year or two more years to bloom,
repeating this cycle and then plant them outside in the ground in the
autumn.

## Management

The area of white 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 on the ground; 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 grass nut
populations require periodic disturbance to maintain and increase their
populations, then indigenous harvesting regimes if reenacted, may help
maintain populations. Populations becoming overcrowded or showing
reduced vigor should be thinned.

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

This species is not readily available from commercial nurseries. 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. & D.L. Rowney 1998. *California geophytes: their ecology,
ethnobotany, and conservation*. Fremontia 26(1):12-18.

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

Chestnut, V.K. 1902. *Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County,
California*. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium,
Government Printing Office 1900-1902. Vol 7:295-422. Reprinted in 1974
by the Mendocino County Historical Society Inc., Fort Bragg, California.

Fowler, C.S. 1986. *Subsistence*. pp. 64-97. IN: Handbook of North
American Indians Vol. 11 Great Basin. Warren L. D\'Azevedo \[Ed.\].
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Garth, T.R. 1953. *Atsugewi ethnography*. UCPAR 14(2):129-212.

Keator, G. 1993. *Triteleia*. pp. 1206-1208. IN: The Jepson Manual:
Higher Plants of California. J.C. Hickman (ed.). University of
California Press, Berkeley, California.

Powers, S. 1976. *Tribes of California*. University of California Press.
Berkeley, California. 480 pp.

## Prepared By & Species Coordinators

*M. Kat Anderson*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

c/o Environmental Horticulture Department, University of California,
Davis, California

*Wayne Roderick*

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

Edited: 17jan01 jsp; 04jun03 ahv; 060818 jsp

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/)\>

*The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in
all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national
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orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases
apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require
alternative means for communication of program information (Braille,
large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA\'s [TARGET
Center](http://www.usda.gov/oo/target.htm) at 202-720-2600 (voice and
TDD).*

*To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of
Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence
Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call 202-720-5964 (voice or
TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.*

*Read about [Civil Rights at the Natural Resources Convervation
Service](http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/civilrights/).*