Blue dicks
Dichelostemma capitatum
root
⚠️ Toxic look-alike
Never eat this plant unless you are certain it is not its toxic look-alike.
Death camas (Toxicoscordion), deadly, grows on the same California hills and meadows, with similar bulbs and leaves before flowering. In flower, dichelostemma bears a tight head of blue-violet flowers at the end of a bare stem; death camas, small cream or white flowers in a cluster. Its alkaloids cause vomiting, drooling, weakness and heart rhythm disorders, sometimes fatal. Only dig up plants seen in flower, never an isolated bulb.
If in the slightest doubt, leave it. If you feel unwell after eating it, even several hours later, call Poison Control (1-800-222-1222) or 911.
Small white corms with a mild hazelnut taste, raw or cooked in the ashes, dug up in spring by California's peoples.
- Origin
- California and the American Southwest
- Where to find it
- In the grasslands and chaparral of California and Arizona.
- Season (United States)
- March to May
- Preparation
- The corms are peeled of their fibrous coat, then eaten raw or cooked for about twenty minutes in the ashes.
- Molecules
- In small amounts, not counted Insoluble fibers
- Did you know?
- In California it is called “blue dicks” or “wild hyacinth”, for its heads of blue flowers.