This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.
Salt Lake City made national news when Mayor Erin Mendenhall proposed that the city officially adopt the LGBTQ+ pride, trans and Juneteenth flags. It was a response to a new state law that defines which flags can fly on public buildings. Boise, Idaho, made the same move, but Salt Lake had a twist.
The city added sego lilies.
This is not the first time the humble sego lily has played a role in local and national politics. In fact, it has been a crucial part of people’s lives along the Wasatch Front for hundreds of years.
“We live in a core region of the sego lily range,” explained Mitchell James Power, the curator of botany at the Natural History Museum of Utah. “In any direction from Salt Lake, you will be in sego lily habitat.”
Power opened a door in a long row of metal cabinets in a sterile, climate-controlled collections room at the museum. Inside are around 100 sego lilies, dating back to 1888.
The 19th century was a challenging time for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1848, a year after the early pioneers arrived in the valley, a cricket infestation decimated fields of grain and vegetables. The Native Americans who lived there told the newcomers about which plants could be eaten.
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