My fondness of shrub-steppe wildflowers goes back to my Montana childhood. As an 8-year old, I led my siblings on many adult-free adventures up a nearby hill to a lone serviceberry shrub that shaded a small patch of bunchgrass, shooting stars, and yellow bells. Yes – I am smitten by Fritillaria pudica. Every March, I scan the Wenatchee foothills trailsides to spot the first one in bloom. Last year, a friend sent me a yellow bells photo with text saying “the bells are ringing.”
This terrific Plant in Place blog post tells the story of why the yellow petals quickly fade to orange, getting darker and darker each day. The color change is believed to signal insects that successful pollination has happened.
As Will, the blogger, writes, Having a color code directing pollinators toward unfertilized flowers increases the number of successfully pollinated plants. More pollinated plants means higher seed production which in turn keeps the population high in successive generations.
Read Methow Naturalist, Dana Visalli’s short essay “Sex among the Flowers” about bashful yellow bells and their flower color change as a signal for pollinators.
This same story of color change is part of tribal traditions in Eastern Washington. Years ago, I was honored to meet Virginia Beavert, who edited the book, “The Way It Was (Anaku Iwacho) (Yakima Legends). ” She helped secure permission for me to include the story of yellow bells in an ethnobotany curriculum funded by the BLM in early 1990s. The “Wild Spring Flowers” story of the careless yellow bells is designed to teach a life lesson about the importance of adequately preparing for the future.
Kids and adults can visit this USFS Celebrating Wildflowers webpage Just for Kids, or see yellow bells featured as a Plant-of-the-Week. Download a yellow bells coloring page as clip art here or coloring pages for many other wildflowers here. Use this link if you’d like to print a set of colorful pocket-sized cards featuring yellow bells, along with many other shrub-steppe plant and animals native to central Washington.
As always, my first go-to website for native wildflowers is the University of Washington Burke Museum Herbarium Plants of Washington website. Check out my bibliography of wildlife field guides and resource like the “Wildflowers of Washington” phone app.
Always remember to not pick our native wildflowers. Leave them for the next visitor to enjoy. Yellow bells are part of the shrub-steppe food chain!
Fascinating! R and I wonder if a color signal that means “I’ve been pollinated!” tells other pollinators that there is less food available? In other words, we’re unclear why pollination in and of itself would deter subsequent bees, etc. Thanks!
You may want to read the full blog post, referenced in this piece. As Will, the blogger, writes, Having a color code directing pollinators toward unfertilized flowers increases the number of successfully pollinated plants. More pollinated plants means higher seed production which in turn keeps the population high in successive generations.
Yes! Thanks! I did read the blog post, but reading it again we understand better. It’s not about what the pollinators “want”, but is a strategy of the flowers themselves to keep the pollinators from using up energy on pollinated flowers. Got it! BTW, earlier this week we were in the Methow, and we brought home Dana’s spring newsletter. What a fascinating writer and thinker!