Bitterroot, the state flower of Montana

How to recognize it

The bitterroot is tiny. Its leafless flower stems are less than 2 inches tall, rising from a fleshy, branched root. Each stem carries a single large flower with 12 to 18 petals, ranging from white to pink or deep rose, above 6 to 9 sepals and many stamens. The narrow, succulent leaves come up early and usually wither before the plant blooms, so the flowers seem to sit right on bare ground. In Montana it blooms in late May and early June.

Lewis’s flower

Meriwether Lewis collected the specimen that was later named for him near Travelers’ Rest in western Montana in 1806. The botanist Frederick Pursh gave it its name: the genus Lewisia honors Lewis, and the species name rediviva, “restored to life,” comes from a dried root Lewis brought back that grew again after it was replanted.

A Native food

Long before Lewis arrived, the bitterroot was a staple. Its nutritious root was an important food and trade item for the Salish, Pend d’Oreille, Northern Shoshone and Nez Perce peoples, who dug it before the plant flowered.

Where it grows

The bitterroot is native to Montana. It grows across much of western and southern Montana in gravelly or sandy, well-drained, thinly vegetated soil in valley and mountain grasslands. Its full range runs from British Columbia and Alberta south to California, Arizona and Colorado.

Where to see it

Look on dry, open valley grasslands and gravelly slopes in western Montana in late spring, especially in late May and early June.

Chosen by Montana’s women

The bitterroot is Montana’s oldest state symbol after the seal and motto. In 1894 Mary Long Alderson, president of Montana’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, launched a campaign for a state flower, partly to give women practice in organizing politically. The 1895 Legislature made the bitterroot official. The Montana Historical Society notes that the plant grew mainly in western Montana, where most residents lived at the time.