Calochortus gunnisonii
(Sego Lily, Mariposa Lily)
Calochortaceae (Mariposa Lily Family).

Foothills, montane, subalpine.  Meadows.  Spring, summer.

"Calochortus" from the Greek "kalos", means "beautiful".  "Chortos" means "grass" and refers to the grass-like leaves.

"Mariposa" is Spanish for "Butterfly" and "Sego" is a Shoshonean word for "edible bulb".

On May 17, 1806, near what is today Kamiah, Idaho, Meriwether Lewis collected the first plant of a new genus that Frederick Pursh later named "Calochortus".  The plant was Calochortus elegans.

The first Calochortus gunnisonii was collected in central Colorado in 1853 by Frederick Creutzfeldt, the botanist on the fatal Gunnison Expedition.

Captain J W. Gunnison, 1812-1853, surveyor, explorer, and expedition leader and eight companions were murdered in Utah just after finishing a railroad route survey.  Gunnison is honored in many names: Calochortus gunnisonii, Gunnison Grouse, Gunnison, Colorado, etc.

Many botanists still place Calochortus in the Liliaceae (Lily Family), not the Calochortaceae Family.