| Xerophyllum tenax | |
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| Glacier National Park, Montana | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Liliales |
| Family: | Melanthiaceae |
| Genus: | Xerophyllum |
| Species: | X. tenax |
| Binomial name | |
| Xerophyllum tenax | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
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Xerophyllum tenax is a North American species of plants in the corn lily family. [1] [2] It is known by several common names, including bear grass, soap grass, quip-quip, and Indian basket grass. [3]
Xerophyllum tenax has flowers with six sepals and six stamens borne in a terminal raceme. The plant is a perennial herb [4] that can grow to 15–150 cm in height. It grows in bunches with the leaves wrapped around and extending from a small stem at ground level. The leaves are 30–100 cm long and 2–6 mm wide, dull olive green with toothed edges. The slightly fragrant white flowers emerge from a tall stalk that bolts from the base. When the flowers are in bloom they are tightly packed at the tip of the stalk like an upright club. It produces small, tan coloured seeds that will germinate after a cold period of 12 to 16 weeks. The plant is found mostly in western North America from British Columbia south to California and east to Wyoming, in subalpine meadows and coastal mountains, and also on low ground in the California coastal fog belt as far south as Monterey County. It is common on the Olympic Peninsula and in the Cascades, northern Sierra Nevada and Rockies. [5] [6] [2]
Xerophyllum tenax is an important part of the fire ecology of regions where it is native. It has rhizomes which survive fire that clears dead and dying plant matter from the surface of the ground. The plant thrives with periodic burns and is often the first plant to sprout in a scorched area.
Its fibrous leaves, which turn from green to white as they dry, are tough, durable, and easily dyed and manipulated into tight waterproof weaves. [7]
Depending on site-specific and environmental conditions, plants may bloom every year or only once every decade, though back-to-back blooming of individual plants is rare. [8] It is a common myth that beargrass blooms every seven years, but depending on conditions such as moisture and temperatures there are periodically large concentrations of blooms. [9]
Deer and elk eat the flower and other parts of the plant. [10] Bears eat the softer leaf bases. [11]
The Hupa people use this plant to create a border pattern in baskets. [12] [7]
This species has long been used by Native Americans who weave it in baskets, and historically, roasted the rootstock for food; [13] they also ate the pods, which are good cooked. [10] They also braid dried leaves and adorn them on traditional buckskin dresses and jewelry. [14] [7]
Achillea millefolium, commonly known as yarrow or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Other common names include old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's woundwort, and thousand seal.
Dasylirion wheeleri is a species of flowering plant in the asparagus family (Asparagaceae), native to arid environments of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
Maianthemum racemosum, the treacleberry, feathery false lily of the valley, false Solomon's seal, Solomon's plume or false spikenard, is a species of flowering plant native to North America. It is a common, widespread plant with numerous common names and synonyms, known from every US state except Hawaii, and from every Canadian province and territory, as well as from Mexico.
Xerophyllum is a genus of perennial plants from the family Melanthiaceae. The genus is native to North America.
Xerophyllum asphodeloides is a North American species of flowering plants in the Melanthiaceae known by the common names turkey beard, eastern turkeybeard, beartongue, grass-leaved helonias, and mountain asphodel. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs in the southern Appalachian Mountains from Virginia to Alabama, and also in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.
Nolina parryi is a flowering plant that is native to Baja California, southern California and Arizona.
Liatris aspera is a perennial wildflower in the Asteraceae family that is found in central to eastern North America in habitats that range from mesic to dry prairie and dry savanna.
Lomatium utriculatum is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common name common lomatium or spring gold. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in many types of habitat including chaparral, and in the Sierra Nevada.
Lysichiton americanus, also called western skunk cabbage (US), yellow skunk cabbage (UK), American skunk-cabbage or swamp lantern, is a plant found in swamps and wet woods, along streams and in other wet areas of the Pacific Northwest, where it is one of the few native species in the arum family.
Iris tenax is a species of Iris, known by the common names tough-leaved iris, Oregon iris, or more colloquially, flag.
Erythronium oregonum is a North American species of flowering plant in the lily family which is known by the common name giant white fawnlily or Oregon fawn-lily.
Goodyera oblongifolia is a species of orchid known by the common names western rattlesnake plantain and giant rattlesnake plantain. It is native to much of North America, particularly in the mountains of the western United States and Canada, from Alaska to northern Mexico, as well as in the Great Lakes region, Maine, Quebec and the Canadian Maritime Provinces.
Cleomella arboreasyn. Peritoma arborea, is a perennial shrub or bush in the spiderflower family (Cleomaceae) known by the common names bladderpod, bladderpod spiderflower and burro-fat. It has yellow flowers in bloom all months of the year. It emits a foul odor to discourage herbivory from insects.
Arnica cordifolia is a species of arnica in the sunflower family, known by the common name heartleaf arnica. It is native to western North America.
Balsamorhiza sagittata is a North American species of flowering plant in the tribe Heliantheae of the family Asteraceae known by the common name Arrowleaf Balsamroot. Also sometimes called Oregon sunflower, it is widespread across western Canada and much of the western United States.
Calycadenia truncata is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Oregon western rosinweed. It is native to western North America.
Claytonia nevadensis, known by the common names Sierra springbeauty and Sierra Nevada claytonia, is a species of wildflower in the family Montiaceae. The evolutionary relationship of Claytonia nevadensis to other claytonias is a subject of debate and ongoing genetic studies. Sierra springbeauties are diploid with a chromosome base number of x = 7
Anisocarpus madioides is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name woodland madia.
Yucca glauca is a species of perennial evergreen plant, adapted to xeric (dry) growth conditions. It is also known as small soapweed, soapweed yucca, Spanish bayonet, and Great Plains yucca.
Heterotheca villosa, commonly known as the hairy goldenaster, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae found in central and western North America.
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