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Blue Dicks
Dipterostemon capitatus
  
16 Nurseries Carry This Plant

About Blue Dicks (Dipterostemon capitatus) 16 Nurseries Carry This Plant Blue Dicks (Dipterostemon capitatus), also called Wild Hyacinth, Purplehead and Brodiaea (alternate spellings, Brodiea, Brodeia) occur in Arizona, California, Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, and northern Mexico.

This species has three recognized subspecies: D. capitatus subsp. lacuna-vernalis, Dipterostemon capitatus subsp. capitatus, and Dipterostemon capitatum subsp. pauciflorus. Dipterostemon capitatus is an herbaceous perennial, growing from an underground corm. It has 2 or 3 leaves, which are 4-16 inches long.

The flower cluster is head- or umbel-like, and dense. It usually contains 2 to 15 flowers, which have a blue, blue-purple, pink-purple, or white perianth. The flower tube is 0.1-0.5 inch and is narrowly cylindrical to bell-shaped. Flowers have six fertile stamens, deeply notched, lance-shaped, white, angled inward, slightly reflexed at tip, with outer filaments wider at the base. It has a twisted and fleshy peduncle, a set of membranous, petal-like stamen appendages around the anthers, and angular black seeds.

It reproduces from seed and vegetative means in the form of cormlets. The cormlets are attached to the parent corm by stolons and are sessile, produced in the axils of the old leaf bases on the mature corm. Plants thrive in open disturbed environments and are a common post-fire succession species in chaparral.
Plant Description
Plant Type
Plant Type
Perennial herb

Size
Size
1.5 - 2 ft tall
2 in wide

Form
Form
Upright Columnar

Growth Rate
Growth Rate
Moderate

Dormancy
Dormancy
Summer Deciduous

Fragrance
Fragrance
Slight

Flower Color
Flower Color
Lavender, Blue

Flowering Season
Flowering Season
Winter, Spring

Wildlife Supported
 
Hummingbirds and insects

Landscaping Information
Sun
Sun
Full Sun, Part Shade

Moisture
Moisture
Low

Summer Irrigation
Summer Irrigation
Never irrigate once established

Nurseries
Nurseries
Carried by 16

Ease of Care
Ease of Care
moderately easy

Cold Tolerance
Cold Tolerance
Tolerates cold to -20° F

Soil Drainage
Soil Drainage
Fast, Medium, Slow

Soil Description
Soil Description
Adaptable

Common uses
Common uses
Groundcovers, Deer Resistant, Butterfly Gardens

Companion Plants
Companion Plants
Native grasses, Calochortus spp., Coast Sagebush, Chamise, Sugar Bush, Yucca spp., Dudleya spp., various cactus species

Propagation
Propagation?
The offsets from the corms can be removed and replanted elsewhere. The seeds also germinate relatively well in open soil that has no weeds and minimal mulch. Corms are often available from specialty bulb vendors or CNPS plant sales.

Natural Setting
Site Type
Site Type
Open places,meadows, grassy places, openings in mixed chaparral or coastal sage scrub on rocky slopes, canyons and mesas. Also found in desert transition zone.

Climate
Climate
Annual Precipitation: 2.9" - 133.4", Summer Precipitation: 0.15" - 3.85", Coldest Month: 30.9" - 58.8", Hottest Month: 57.8" - 88.3", Humidity: 0.09" - 38.38", Elevation: -131" - 8105"

Alternative Names
Botanical Names: Brodiaea pulchella, Dichelostemma capitatum
Common Names: Blue Dips Vernal Pool Blue Dicks, Wild Hyacinth


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Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.

Links:   Jepson eFlora Taxon Page  CalPhotos  Wikipedia  Calflora


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