Meet Lewisia Cotyledon: The tough, colorful Oregon native

I am proud to be a native Oregonian. A quick pronunciation lesson: Oregonian is Ore-eh-GO-nee-un, Oregon is ORE-ee-gun, and Willamette is Will-am-et. Get any of those wrong and we’ll still be polite. We’ll just know you’re not from here — and probably ridicule you if you say wood-er instead of watt-er.

Oregon has produced some remarkable natives: two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, beloved author Beverly Cleary, and legendary runner Steve Prefontaine.

I know what you’re thinking. What about Tonya Harding? Fair enough. We also gave the world Ma Anand Sheela, and D. B. Cooper boarded his infamous flight in Portland. So yes, Oregon has produced a few natives we’d rather not put on the tourism brochure. Nobody said all Oregon natives were well behaved.

Fortunately, some of our finest natives have chlorophyll.

Meet Lewisia cotyledon, a spectacular evergreen perennial indigenous to southern Oregon’s rugged Siskiyou Mountains. Colorful, well-behaved, and unlikely to hijack an airplane, poison a salad bar, or kneecap the competition. Now that’s an Oregon native I’m proud to introduce!

Commonly called cliff maids or Siskiyou Lewisia, Lewisia cotyledon belongs to a genus named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis collected a related species, Lewisia rediviva, in 1806, and the genus was later named in his honor.

Native to the Siskiyou and Klamath Mountains of southern Oregon and northern California, Lewisia cotyledon is adapted to rugged terrain, lean soils, and excellent drainage. Its evergreen, succulent leaves form tidy rosettes. Then come the flowers — brilliant, almost candy-striped blooms in shades of white, pink, salmon, orange, magenta, and nearly red. Hybridizers have taken an impressive wildflower and turned the color dial to eleven. Michelle and I have several cultivars growing on our deck, where they bloom from March through October.

Despite its delicate appearance, Lewisia cotyledon is tough. The trick is drainage. It’s happy with cold, rocky conditions, but soggy winter soil can be a death sentence. Give it gritty, sharply drained soil, sun to part shade, and resist loving it with too much water. Rock gardens, crevices, containers, and retaining walls are natural homes for Lewisia. Few plants pack this much flower power into such a small package — or keep the show going for so long.

Like many Oregonians, it prefers its surroundings a little rocky and doesn’t appreciate being told how much water it needs. We only hope it rains enough here in winter to keep it alive. Just kidding. Give it a try.

Just kidding. Give it a try.

Mark Leichty is the director of business development at Little Prince of Oregon Nursery near Portland. He is a certified plant geek who enjoys visiting beautiful gardens and garden centers searching for rare and unique plants to satisfy his plant lust. mark@littleprinceoforegon.com