Bitterroot

The Bitterroot is a small, low, pink flower with yellow center known to grow in the vicinity of Missoula, Montana. Its range is threatened, and is now found in abundance only on Waterworks Hill, a small hill to the north of Missoula that forms the southwest boundary to the Rattlesnake Creek drainage.

The flower was known and consumed by the Flathead Indians for the roots. The roots were not a common part of the diet, but were rather an infrequent delicacy.

The Bitterroot was selected to be the Montana State Flower on February 27, 1895. Two major geographic features, the Bitterroot Mountains (running North-South and forming the divide between Idaho and Montana), and the Bitterroot River (also running North-South, terminating in the Clark Fork River in the city of Missoula), owe the origins of their name to this flower.