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Bitterroot
(Lewisia Rediviva)
A decade before the Spanish American War colored
Montana's seal, a more subdued movement began to add beauty and a mild
fragrance to Montana's list of symbols.
Delegates to the 1889 Montana Women's Christian Temperance Union, meeting
in Missoula, selected a "little blue flower that grows near the snow
banks" as the WCTU's official state flower. Two years later, sentiment
arose for change and the bitterroot received the WCTU's designation.
A perennial, the bitterroot has an exquisite pink blossom which grows
close to the ground and its delicate shadings offer the eye one of the
loveliest of wildflowers.
The bitterroot was adopted on February 27, 1895. But it had become a
Montana icon long before.
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