National Geographic Magazine/Volume 31/Number 6/Our State Flowers/The Sego Lily

The Sego Lily (Calochortus nuttallii Torr. and Gr.)


Utah's floral queen belongs to the tulip branch of the lily family. It has a remarkable list of relatives, good, bad, and indifferent, close and distant. These kinsfolk range from the evil-smelling carrion flower to the delightfully fragrant lily-of-the-valley; from the gorgeous and assertive butterfly tulip to the timid, unassuming fairy bell; from the poisonous sego and the hog potato to the edible comass and the soap-like amole.

The sego lily is a variety of the mariposa tulip. Its flower is about two inches across, and its white petals are tinged sometimes with yellowish green and sometimes with lilac. The flowers usually follow individual taste in colorings and wear a wide range of the prettiest gowns imaginable.

Mariposa in Spanish means butterfly, and the members of the mariposa group of flowers, to which the sego lily belongs, are marvelous in their hues and delightful in their imitation of the decorative patterns and color combinations of their insect friends.

A visitor to the big trees of the Mariposa Grove relates how she found a bed of sego lilies in which, upon close examination, she discovered fourteen distinct markings, the flowers resembling so many butterflies with wings outspread for flight, their rich color glistening in the sun.

The sego lily was even more to the early Mormon church in Utah than was the mayflower to the Pilgrims at Plymouth. The mayflower was the springtime's first harbinger and a blossom of hope; the sego lily was not only early on the scene to gladden a somewhat dreary landscape, but its roots proved edible. The followers of Brigham Young looked upon it in somewhat the same light as the Jews looked upon the manna that saved them during their wanderings in the wilderness. Therefore the sego lily has figured largely in the history of the Mormon Church in Utah and has been accorded the distinction of State flower as a proof of the early settlers' gratitude.

Source: —, ed. (June 1917), “Our State Flowers: The Floral Emblems Chosen by the Commonwealths”, The National Geographic Magazine 31(6): 498. (Illustration from page 512.)