Calochortus Lilies

by Stephen Coleman
(Oakdale, California)

Hi Karen,

When I was 8 or 9 years old, I became fascinated with wildflowers. I felt great peace and love in their beauty.

I went to a tiny library and found a book on California wild flowers. I poured over this book and soon had it memorized.

One delightful spring morning I was doing my usual wildflower spotting and I found a new wonderful delight, Calochortus Lilies or the Venus Calochorutus. I was ecstatic and knew it to be a close relative of the Utah state flower, the Sego Lilly.

My ancestors survived on the Sego Lily as early Mormon pioneers on lands that the Indians did not even want. My ancestors and the Indians shared when food was short.

The Venus Calochortus Lilies opened up many questions to ask my grandmother who grew up in a log cabin in southern Utah. I learned stories of ancestors long gone and was told I had many of the attributes of my great grandmother who had died 25 years before my birth.

I learned of the Black Hawk war that the Ute Indians themselves started from my great grandfather's journal. He witnessed the beginning of the war.

Every time I see Venus Calochortus Lilies it reminds me of the peace and love I felt the first time I saw it and I feel the ties to my ancestors still are with me.