{{Short description|Plant species in the springbeauty family}} {{about||the American comic book series|Bitter Root|the waterway|Bitterroot River}} {{Speciesbox | image = Lewisia rediviva 9789.JPG | image_caption = ''Lewisia rediviva'' var. ''rediviva'' in Wenas Wildlife Area, Washington | status = {{TNCStatus}} | status_system = TNC | status_ref = <ref name="NatureServe">{{Cite NatureServe |date=28 February 2025 |id=2.140239 |title=''Lewisia rediviva'' |access-date=31 March 2025}}</ref> | genus = Lewisia | species = rediviva | authority = Pursh | subdivision_ranks = Varieties | subdivision_ref = <ref name="POWO">{{cite POWO |id=317390-2 |title=''Lewisia rediviva'' Pursh |access-date=29 March 2025}}</ref> | subdivision = {{Species list | L. rediviva var. minor | | L. rediviva var. rediviva | }} | synonyms_ref = <ref>{{cite POWO |id=139340-2 |title=''Lewisia rediviva'' var. ''minor'' (Rydb.) Munz |access-date=29 March 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite POWO |id=77225433-1 |title=''Lewisia rediviva'' var. ''rediviva'' |access-date=29 March 2025}}</ref> | synonyms = {{Collapsible list | {{Species list | Lewisia alba | Kellogg | Lewisia minor | Rydb. | Lewisia rediviva subsp. minor | (Rydb.) A.H.Holmgren }} }} }}
'''Bitterroot''' (''Lewisia rediviva'') is a small perennial herb in the family Montiaceae. Its specific epithet {{lang|la|rediviva}} ("revived, reborn") refers to its ability to regenerate from dry and seemingly dead roots.<ref>{{cite book|author= William Curtis |title=The Curtis's botanical magazine |url= https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753002721634#page/n122/mode/2up/search/pursh |year=1801 |page=123|quote=The specific name ''rediviva'' is given by Pursh in consequence of the root, long preserved in the herbarium, and apparently dead, having been planted, revived in a garden in Philadelphia.}}</ref>
The genus ''Lewisia'' was moved in 2009 from the purslane family (Portulacaceae) with adoption of the APG III system, to the family Montiaceae.
==Description==
thumb|Bitterroot flower ''Lewisia rediviva'' is a low-growing perennial plant with a fleshy taproot and a simple or branched base and a low rosette of thick fleshy linear leaves with blunt tips. The leaves are roughly circular in cross section, sometimes somewhat flattened on the adaxial (top) surface. The absence of an adaxial groove on the leaves distinguishes this from other ''Lewisia'' species with overlapping ranges. The leaves often wither before flowers open.
The very short flower stems are leafless, {{Convert|1|-|3|cm|1|frac=8}} tall, bearing at the tip a whorl of 5–6 linear bracts which are 5–10 mm long. A single proportionally huge flower appears on each stem with 5–9 oval-shaped sepals and many petals.<ref name="Klinkenberg2014">{{cite web |date=2014 |editor-last=Klinkenberg |editor-first=Brian |title=''Lewisia rediviva'' |url=http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Lewisia%20rediviva |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113715/http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Lewisia%20rediviva |archive-date=2016-03-04 |access-date=2015-04-23 |website=E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Plants of British Columbia [eflora.bc.ca]. |publisher=Lab for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver}}</ref> Each flower has between ten and nineteen petals that measure {{Convert|15 to 35|mm|1|frac=8}} long.<ref>{{Cite web <!--Deny Citation Bot-->|last1=Hershkovitz |first1=Mark A. |last2=Hogan |first2=Sean B. |date=30 July 2020 |orig-date=In print 2003 |url=http://dev.floranorthamerica.org/Lewisia_rediviva |title=''Lewisia rediviva'' |website=Flora of North America |page=484 |language=en |isbn=978-0-19-517389-5 |oclc=177245214 |access-date=1 June 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123171058/http://dev.floranorthamerica.org/Lewisia_rediviva |archive-date=23 January 2021}}</ref> They range in color from whitish to deep pink or lavender. Flowering occurs from April through July.<ref name="Sullivan2015">{{cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Steven. K. |date=2015 |title=''Lewisia rediviva'' |url=http://www.wildflowersearch.com/search?&PlantName=Lewisia+rediviva |access-date=2015-04-23 |website=Wildflower Search}}</ref> At maturity, the bitterroot produces egg-shaped capsules with 6–20 nearly round seeds.<ref name="Klinkenberg2014" />
==Distribution== The plant is native to western North America from low to moderate elevations on grassland, open bushland, forest in dry rocky or gravelly soils. Its range extends from southern British Columbia, through Washington and Oregon west of the Cascade Range to southern California, and east to western Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, northern Colorado and northern Arizona.<ref name="Sullivan2015" /><ref name="PLANTS">{{cite web |date=2015 |title=''Lewisia rediviva'' |url=https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LERE7 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703214301/http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LERE7 |archive-date=2013-07-03 |access-date=2015-04-23 |website=PLANTS Database |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture; Natural Resources Conservation Service}}</ref><ref name="Klinkenberg2014" /><ref name="WTU Herbarium2015">{{cite web |date=2015 |editor-last=Giblin |editor-first=David |title=''Lewisia rediviva'' |url=http://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection.php?Genus=Lewisia&Species=rediviva |access-date=2015-04-23 |website=WTU Herbarium Image Collection |publisher=Burke Museum, University of Washington}}</ref>
==Uses== The thick roots come into season in spring<ref name=":0" /> and can survive extremely dry conditions. If collected early enough in the season,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Ronald J.|title=Sagebrush Country: A Wildflower Sanctuary|publisher=Mountain Press Pub. Co|year=1994|isbn=0-87842-280-3|edition=rev.|location=Missoula, MT|pages=122|language=en|oclc=25708726|orig-year=1992}}</ref> they can be peeled, boiled, and made into a jelly-like food.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Angier|first=Bradford|url=https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetoedib00angi/page/36/mode/2up|title=Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants|publisher=Stackpole Books|year=1974|isbn=0-8117-0616-8|location=Harrisburg, PA|pages=36|oclc=799792|author-link=Bradford Angier}}</ref>
==History and culture==
French trappers knew the plant as {{lang|fr|racine amère}} (bitter root).<ref name = "bitterrootheaven" /> Native American names include ''spetlum/sp̓eƛ̓m̓'' or ''spetlem'' ("hand-peeled"), ''nakamtcu'' (Ktanxa: {{Lang|kut|naqam¢u}}),<ref>{{Cite web | title = FirstVoices: Ktunaxa words | access-date = 2012-07-08 | url = http://www.firstvoices.ca/en/Ktunaxa/word/63b51dec5cf5793e/Bitterroot | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130115131911/http://www.firstvoices.ca/en/Ktunaxa/word/63b51dec5cf5793e/Bitterroot | url-status = dead | archive-date = January 15, 2013 }}</ref> and {{lang|chy|mo'ôtáa-heséeo'ôtse}} (Cheyenne, "black medicine").<ref>[http://www.cdkc.edu/cheyennedictionary/index-english/main.htmm Cheyenne Dictionary]{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} by Fisher, Leman, Pine, Sanchez.</ref>
The roots were consumed by tribes such as the Shoshone and the Flathead Indians as an infrequent delicacy. Traditionally, the Ktunaxa cooked bitterroot with grouse. For the Ktunaxa, bitterroot is eaten with sugar; other tribes prefer eating it with salt.<ref>{{Cite web | last = Ashley Casimer | title = Nutrition: Ktunaxa People and the Traditional Food History | work = Aqam Community Learning Centre | access-date = 2012-07-08 | url = http://www.aqam.net/clc/nutrition/articles/traditional_diet.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091112173307/http://www.aqam.net/clc/nutrition/articles/traditional_diet.htm | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2009-11-12 }}</ref> The Lemhi Shoshone believed the small red core found in the upper taproot had special powers, notably being able to stop a bear attack.<ref name = "bitterrootheaven" /> Plains Indians peeled and boiled the root prior to its consumption.<ref name=":1" /> Nlaka'pamux traditional knowledge holds that when saskatoonberry, chokecherry, and arrowleaf balsamroot start blooming, bitterroot is ready to be dug up and harvested.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Turner |first1=Nancy J. |last2=Reid |first2=Andrea J. |date=November 2022 |title="When the Wild Roses Bloom": Indigenous Knowledge and Environmental Change in Northwestern North America |journal=GeoHealth |language=en |volume=6 |issue=11 |article-number=e2022GH000612 |doi=10.1029/2022GH000612 |issn=2471-1403 |pmc=9665002 |pmid=36398276 |bibcode=2022GHeal...6..612T }}</ref>
[[File:Bitterroot, Lewisia rediviva var. rediviva.jpg|thumb|''L. rediviva var. rediviva'', Glass Mountain, Owens Valley, California]] thumb|Before flowering
Meriwether Lewis ate bitterroot in 1805 and 1806 during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The specimens he brought back were identified and given their scientific name, ''Lewisia rediviva'', by a German-American botanist, Frederick Pursh.<ref name="bitterrootheaven"> {{Cite web | title = Trivia | BitterrootHeaven.com | access-date = 2012-07-08 | url = http://bitterrootheaven.com/trivia.html | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120415155730/http://bitterrootheaven.com/trivia.html | archive-date = 2012-04-15 }}</ref> Based on Lewis and Clark's manuscript, Pursh labeled it "spatlum"; this apparently was actually a Salishan name for "tobacco".<ref>{{cite book|author=Bureau of American Ethnology|author-link=Bureau of American Ethnology|title=Handbook of American Indians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hZAUwZk4vgcC|year=1910|page=624|quote= its supposed name was obtained from Lewis's manuscript by Pursh, who gives it as spatlum (''Spatlum Aboriginorum''). The name, which is Salishan, is here a misapplication, since ''spatlûm'' in the Comox dialect (''spätlûm'' in the Kwantlin) is the name for }}</ref>
The bitterroot was selected as the Montana state flower in 1895.<ref>{{cite book|author=Montana. Dept. of Public Instruction|title=Montana Educational Directory|url=https://archive.org/stream/montanaeducation00mont_5#page/30/mode/1up/search/flower|year=1929|page=30|quote= The Montana state flower, adopted by act of the Legislative Assembly, approved February 27, 1895, is the Bitter Root (''Lewisia rediviva'').}}</ref>
Three major geographic features – the Bitterroot Mountains (running north–south and forming the divide between Idaho and Montana), the Bitterroot Valley, and the Bitterroot River (which flows south–north, terminating in the Clark Fork river in the city of Missoula) – owe the origins of their names to this flower.<ref name = "bitterrootheaven" /><ref name="Service1909">{{cite book|author=US Forest Service|title=Names of National Forests with Their Origin, Definition, Or Derivation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pas7AQAAMAAJ|year=1909|publisher=Washington|quote= From the plant ''Lewisia rediviva'', which gives name to the Bitter Root mountains and river of Montana and Idaho.}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{Cite book | publisher = Salish Kootenai College, Npustin Press | isbn = 9780981683416 | last = Johnny Arlee | title = The Gift of the Bitterroot | access-date = 2018-01-24 | year = 2008 | url = https://www.lessonsofourland.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Gift-of-the-Bitterroot.pdf }} * Moerman. D. Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 {{ISBN|0-88192-453-9}}
== External links == {{Wiktionary}} *{{Commons category-inline|Lewisia rediviva|Lewisia rediviva<br />(bitter root)}} *{{Wikispecies-inline|Lewisia rediviva}} * [https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=4778 Calflora Database: ''Lewisia rediviva'' (Bitter root)] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080512022205/http://www.cwnp.org/photopgs/ldoc/lerediviva.html Central Washington Native Plant Society] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080705053808/http://www.lewis-clark.org/bitterroot.htm Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition] * [https://home.nps.gov/lecl/learn/nature/bitterroot.htm Bitterroot, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail], U.S. Forest Service * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120530121112/http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Environment/CulRes/herbs.htm#Lewisia WSDOT - Ethnobotany - Herbs. ''Lewisia rediviva'' - Bitter-root, Sand Rose, Portulacaceae (Purslane Family)]
{{US state flowers}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q4113860}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Lewisia Category:Flora of the Northwestern United States Category:Flora of the Southwestern United States Category:Plants used in Native American cuisine Category:Symbols of Montana Category:Taxa named by Frederick Traugott Pursh Category:Flora without expected TNC conservation status