As I’m sure many of you know, Fremontia, the journal of the California Native Plant Society, devoted an entire issue to the subject of geophytes in 2016. A number of the articles deal with the edibility of bulbs, and the relationship of native peoples and the local bulbs they ate and propagated. It’s fascinating information, and the entire issue can be downloaded for free from the CNPS website. http://cnps.org/wp-content/uploads/… Charles Powne iyou@me.com https://map.what3words.com/extend.storm.palace USDA zone 8b > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2019 00:59:06 -0600 > From: <rrodich@juno.com> > To: pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > Subject: Re: [pbs] Edibility of Bulbs > Message-ID: <AABQF68WBAR2D322@smtpout04.dca.untd.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > And of course, there are the many Lilium species. The Asian cultures are > correct when they relay that the darker colored bulbs of trumpet lily > species are bitter. Believe me, it's beyond bitter - just take a tiny > bit that gets spit out immediately, and the unpleasant taste lingers for > an hour in your mouth no matter what you do. But asiatic lilies are very > good tasting. A couple of relevant reports I made on the web: > https://garden.org/thread/view_post/803632/ > https://garden.org/thread/view_post/803648/ > and if you would like to slog through the entire forum thread "Cooking > with Lilies" that includes a lot of irrelevant entries, it is here: > https://garden.org/thread/view/… > > And recently I have had enough martagon section species to eat, too - > martagons and tsingtauense/distichum/martagon hybrids. They are the best > tasting of all! You will notice in my previous links I mention a > slightly soapy taste when bulbs are eaten raw that goes away when cooked. > Martagon section lilies do not have this at all. > I have yet to try any American species. > > I am eager to hear about any experiences with Lilium spp. that anyone > else can share. > > Rick Rodich > just west of Minneapolis, MN _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…