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| ## Ithuriel's spear {#ithuriels-spear .Title-Header}                  |
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| *Triteleia laxa* Benth.                                               |
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| Plant Symbol = TRLA16                                                 |
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Contributed by: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & East Bay Regional
Parks Botanic Garden

### ![](media/image2.png){width="2.0097222222222224in" height="2.3743055555555554in"}

# Alternate Names

Grass nuts, Indian potato, deer potato, highland potato

# Uses

*Ethnobotanic*: The corms were gathered with a digging stick and eaten
by the Karuk, Pomo, Yuki, Wailaki, Coast Miwok, Maidu, and many other
tribes in California. The Maidu, Karuk, and other tribes cooked the
corms in an earth oven. The Karuk dug a pit, lined it with rocks, and
built a fire in it. As soon as the fire had gone out, the ashes were
removed and the cleaned corms were put on a mat of fresh maple leaves
and covered with another mat. Madrone leaves were laid over this, then
hot rocks. The hot rocks were covered with earth and on this a fire was
built. The bulbs were eaten the next day when the pit was opened. The
corms are still gathered today by the Kashaya Pomo and individuals of
other ethnic affiliations. The Kashaya boil the \"potatoes\" and eat
them. The flowers are showy and have become valued by some
horticulturists and gardeners. The plant is propagated for cut flowers
and bulbs in Holland. Both small and large mammals including black
bears, mule deer, exotic wild pigs, and pocket gophers eat the corms.
The Karuk call this plant \"deer potato\" because deer eat the blossoms.

# 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). This perennial herb has flowers that
appear in open, large umbels with 8 to 48 flowers per umbel. The funnel
form-shaped flowers are narrow at the base and have six petal-like lobes
and range in color from blue to blue-purple to white. Six stamens are
attached to the perianth wall at two different levels. The ovary is on a
long slender stipe. The plants reproduce both through black seeds and
fibrous-coated corms. The tan corms have cormlets tightly attached
(sessile). The fruit is a capsule. The two or three basal grass-like
leaves generally whither at flowering.

*Distribution*: For current distribution, please consult the Plant
Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site. The plants are
found in open forest, woodland, and grassland in clay soil in a wide
elevational range from 0 to 1500 m. Ithuriel\'s spears are distributed
from southwestern Oregon, the Cascade Range, northwestern California,
central western California, the Sierra Nevada, and the Transverse
Ranges.

# Establishment

If possible, obtain the seed and corms from local sources near where
they will be planted, to maintain genetic diversity of Ithuriel\'s
spears 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 or partial shade. 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 grass nuts, 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. Than water them. Grow them
for one more year or two more years to bloom, repeating this cycle and
then out-plant them in the autumn.

# Management

The grass nut area 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 grass nut 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)

This species is available from selected 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.

Anderson, M.K. & D.L. Rowney 1998*. California geophytes: their ecology,
ethnobotany, and conservation*. Fremontia 26(1):12-18.

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.

Collier, M.E.T. & S.B. Thalman (editors) 1991. *Interviews with Tom
Smith and Maria Copa: Isabel Kelly\'s ethnographic notes on the Coast
Miwok Indians of Marin and Southern Sonoma Counties, California*. Miwok
Archeological Preserve of Marin Occasional Papers Number 6.

Duncan, J.W. 1961. *Maidu ethnobotany*. Unpublished Master\'s thesis.
Anthropology Department. California State University, Sacramento,
California.

Goodrich, J., C. Lawson, & V.P. Lawson 1980. *Kashaya Pomo plants*.
American Indian Monograph Series Number II. American Indian Studies
Center, University of California, Los Angeles, California.

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.

Schenck, S.M. & E.W. Gifford 1952. *Karok ethnobotany*. Anthropological
Records 13(6):377-391.

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

# Prepared By & Species Coordinators

*M. Kat Anderson*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

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

*Wayne Roderick*

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

Edited: 05dec00 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
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Center](http://www.usda.gov/oo/target.htm) at 202-720-2600 (voice and
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*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
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*Read about [Civil Rights at the Natural Resources Convervation
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