Okanagan sunflowers are starting to bloom

Get ready for the explosion of yellow on Okanagan mountain sides.

The first of the wild Okanagan sunflowers are starting to bloom and in a couple of weeks slopes and meadows will be blanketed in bright yellow bunches of flowers.

My wife, Kerry, and I saw the very first blooms of the season poking out of the dry scrub along the Mike Passmore Trail in Kalamoir Regional Park this week.

Of course, we took photos as pretty much every hiker does because the flowers are just so beautiful and abundant.

And that's what makes the Okanagan sunflower such a phenomena.

Not only is it a pretty blossom, but at its peak it is so plentiful that entire hillsides and fields seem awash in shimmering gold.

That the blooming season is so short, lasting a scant few weeks, and intense only makes our appreciation of it more acute.

The Okanagan sunflower name is essentially made up.

While the drought-tolerant plant can and does grow throughout western North America, it proliferates particularly in the dry scrub, grasslands and mountain forests of the Okanagan.

So people in the Valley nicknamed the plant technically known as balsamorhiza sagittata, or more commonly as arrowleaf balsamroot, Okanagan sunflower.

The plant does indeed have leaves shaped like elongated arrowheads and it has a taproot that has a resin or 'balsam' fragrance and taste.

The plant is of the sunflower tribe of the aster flower family, so while it's a real sunflower, it's not of the type commonly known for their thick, towering stems and massive flower heads.

Okanagan sunflowers are compact and close to the ground.

In 2000, the City of Kelowna proclaimed the Okanagan sunflower its official flower emblem.

In 2002, the city held a contest to commission an Okanagan sunflower piece of art and painter Jo Scott-B won with her colourful canvas.

The painting hangs in the third floor reception area of City Hall.

"When I first arrived in the Okanagan Valley in the 1960’s one of my earliest paintings was of the Okanagan sunflower," said Scott-B.

"Over the years, I have continued to draw and paint the striking flower, both as individual studies and as a part of a larger landscape. It is this powerful valley landscape which continues to exert a large influence over my work.”

Okanagan sunflower is also what's known as a tap-rooted perennial herb, meaning it's edible and comes up year after year.

It was an important food of the First Nation Syilx peoples with the roots and seeds boiled to make a meel or flour and the leaves and stems eaten raw or steamed.

Sap from the root was also used as a disinfectant.

Deer, bighorn sheep, mice, gophers and a variety of birds also like to nibble on the flowers and seeds.