STATE FLOWER
Montana's State Flower: Bitterroot
The bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva) won Montana's state flower designation by popular vote in 1894, taking 62% of the statewide ballot.
A Root Steeped in Tradition
Long before it became a state symbol, the bitterroot held deep cultural importance for the Shoshone and Flathead peoples, who valued its root as a food source. Tradition held that the small red core at the center of the root carried protective powers, believed capable of warding off even a bear.
QUICK FACT
Montana's Bitterroot Valley and Bitterroot Mountains both take their names from this same hardy, drought-tolerant flower.
