Triteleia hyacinthina

     Julius Caesar's famous quote about Gaul now applies to the lily genus Brodiaea--it is "divided into three parts." At Rhoda Love's suggestion I will briefly review the status of Oregon's species of Brodiaea, Triteleia, and Dichelostemma, the "three parts" of Brodiaea as treated in the new Jepson Manual (1993) and Intermountain Flora (vol 6, 1977). In Peck's Manual (1961, PM below) Brodiaea has 16 species in Oregon, but with corrections and additions we now recognize 15 species distributed in three genera :

     Brodiaea coronaria (Salisb.) Engl. ssp. coronaria [B. coronaria,PM]; B. elegans Hoover ssp. elegans [B. elegans, PM]; B. elegans Hoover ssp. hooveri T. F. Niehaus [not in PM]; B. terrestris Kellogg ssp. terrestris [B. coronaria var. macropoda, PM]. Triteleia bridgesii (S. Watson) Greene [B. bridgesii, PM]; T. crocea (A. W. Wood) Greene [B. crocea,PM]; T. grandiflora Lindl. [B. douglasii, PM ]; T. howellii (S. Watson) Greene [B. douglasii var. howellii, PM]; T. hyacinthina (Lindl.) Greene [B. hyacinthina, PM]; T. ixioides (Aiton) Greene ssp. anilina (Greene) L. W. Lenz [B. scabra var. "analina" PM]; T. hendersonii Greene var. hendersonii [B. hendersonii, PM];T. hendersonii var. leachiae (M. Peck) Hoover [B. leachiae, PM]; T. laxa Benth. [B. laxa, PM]. Dichelostemma capitatum A. W. Wood ssp. capitatum [B. capitata, PM]; D. congestum (Sm.) Kunth [B. pulchella, PM]; D. ida-maia (A. W. Wood) Greene [B. ida-maia, PM]; D. multiflorum (Benth.) A. A. Heller [B. multiflora, PM].

     Not verified for Oregon is Brodiaea californica Lindl. [PM p. 216]; taxa not now recognized are B. dissimulata [PM p. 214, a synonym of T. hyacinthina] and Dichelostemma venustum (Greene) Hoover [sporadic hybrids involving D. ida-maia, says the Jepson Manual]. Unfortunately, D. capitatum is renamed D. pulchellum (Salisb.) A. A. Heller in the Intermountain Flora, a controversy yet to be resolved.

     Triteleia has 6 fertile stamens, all the anthers alike, and no staminodes; Brodiaea has 3 stamens alternating with 3 staminodes; Dichelostemma (except D. capitatum) has 3 stamens, no staminodes (in Oregon species), and broad filament-appendages forming a crown outside the anthers [D. capitatum has 3 large and 3 small anthers plus a crown].