Habitat: Moist meadows. Range: Southern British Columbia to Northern California; east to northern Utah, Wyoming, and Montana.

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This bulbous perennial is native to the West from southern British Columbia & Alberta down into California & Nevada & Utah. It has basal grass-like leaves so that it is sometimes called Bear-grass and bears 5 to 20 star-like violet-blue flowers on each scape (leafless stem) blooming from bottom to top. Flowers have bright yellow stamens. It is a spring perennial that goes dormant when the really warm or hot summer comes and disappears from sight. My biggest customer in southeast Pennsylvania has a group planted in the side yard, but because it is mostly shady there, the leaves don't really become erect, though the flower scapes do. Out West it is reported that deer, elk, and moose feed on the spring foliage, but I have never seen the deer that come into that PA yard eat the foliage. The bulbs are cooked and eaten by Native Americans out west. I have hardly ever seen this plant in the Midwest or Eastern USA.

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