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Flowers & Floral Emblems

The term floral emblem, which refers to flowers specifically, is primarily used in Australia and Canada. In the United States, the term state flower is more often used.

Utah Symbols

Utah State Flower

Sego Lily

(Calochortus nuttallii)

Adopted on March 18, 1911.

The sego lily , Calochortus nuttallii, was made the official state flower of Utah on March 18, 1911, when Senate Bill 225 was signed into law by Gov. William Spry (Utah Code 63-13-6). The bill was introduced by William N. Williams, according to Heart Throbs of the West (2:226), after a census was taken of the state's schoolchildren as to their preference for a state flower.

The sego lily grows six to eight inches high on open grass and sage rangelands in the Great Basin during the summer months. This member of the mariposa family typifies the lilies, with sepals, petals and stamens in the combinations of three with ivory-colored petals which may be tinted from yellow to pink. A horizontal bar of darker color crosses the base of each petal within the flower cup.

The flower is important to Utah not only for its beauty but because the bulbs were eaten by the early Mormon settlers during their first winter in the valley when food was scarce. The bulb, which is walnut-sized, was also eaten by the Indians before the Mormon settlers turned to it for sustenance and serves today as food for rodents and other animals.

Taxonomic Hierarchy
Kingdom	Plantae -- Plants
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants
Superdivision	Spermatophyta -- Seed plants
Division	Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants
Class	Liliopsida – Monocotyledons
Subclass	Liliidae –
Order	Liliales –
Family	Liliaceae – Lily family
Genus	Calochortus Pursh – mariposa lily
Species	Calochortus nuttallii Torr. & Gray – sego lily

State Flowers

Find images and a brief history of the flowers representing, usually by legislative action, the state symbols of each of the fifty states. Many of the state flowers are actually trees -- some states have chosen the same species as state tree and as state flower.

flow·er (flour)
n.
1.
a. It is the reproductive structure of many seed-bearing plants, typically having either specialized male or female organs or both male and female organs, like stamens and a pistil, enclosed in an outer envelope of petals and sepals. b. Such a structure having showy or colorful parts; a blossom.
2. A plant that is cultivated or cherished for its blossoms. 3. The condition or a time of having developed flowers: The violets were in full flower. 4. Something, such as an decoration or a figure of speech that resembles a flower in shape, fineness, or attractiveness.