Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma pulchellum)

Family: Liliaceae

Blue Dicks form beautiful flowers (see above, photographed in lower Hot Springs Canyon on March 05, 2008, and click on the image to enlarge it), but when they first come up in March they look like young onions (see below for a small field of them photographed in the same area on March 27, 2004).

Members of the Lily Family (Liliaceae), they are perennials and form a tiny, onionlike bulb, which however has a much milder taste than an onion. They were used for food by Native Americans. See below for an example:

The small flowers are a beautiful lavender in color, with six segments in a terminal cluster at the end of the long stem:

Stems grow as much as 30" tall, and the flowers always appear in terminal clusters.

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