Hike amongst the bevy of blooms of the Okanagan sunflower

It happens every April like clockwork.

Some would even say it's commonplace.

Yet, the mass blooming of the Okanagan sunflower is a spectacle that thrills and astonishes every time.

It's a sure sign of spring.

It achieves iconic status.

It's become a household name.

It's both visually striking and ecologically important.

So beautiful, so plentiful and so natural is the Okanagan sunflower that the City of Kelowna named it its official flower and emblem.

However, call it by its Latin scientific 'balsamorhiza sagittata' or even 'arrowleaf balsamroot' and the name recognition drops off.

Thus, the Okanagan sunflower is the ideal moniker for this plant's preponderance in the Valley and its yellow harbinger of spring.

The Central Okanagan Regional District is recognizing the Okanagan sunflower's lore with a series of free guided hikes this month and next.

Balsamroot in Bloom is a two-hour wander, 10 am to noon, with a knowledgable guide and fellow nature lovers Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 26 in West Kelowna's Kalamoir Regional Park and Sunday, May 10 in Black Mountain Regional Park.

You can register for the hikes here.

Besides a homage to the Okanagan sunflower, the hikes are bills as a celebration of other spring wildflowers, pollination, seasonal rhythms and local ecosystems.

Kalamoir and Black Mountain are particularly good for Okanagan sunflower immersion because the plants and blooms are so plentiful in both parks.

Mid-April through May is prime time for the showy blooms.

So, you can also do your own hike anytime almost anywhere to get a fix of yellow.

While called Okanagan sunflower, arrowleaf balsamroot has a wide territory from the Thompson-Okanagan into the Cascade mountains and southern Alberta and stretching down to Washington state, South Dakota, Colorado and even northern California.

By the way, arrowleaf balsamroot is an apt albeit boring name compared to Okanagan sunflower.

The plant's green-silver upright leaves are shaped like arrowheads and its strong taproot has a resin that has a balsam smell and taste.

Indigenous peoples peeled and ate the raw tender inner portion of the flower stems, feasted on the raw leaves and boiled or roasted the seeds and taproot to grind into flower.

They also used the root as an immune-booster and the plant's sap as a natural disinfectant.

Deer, bighorn sheep, elk, gophers, mice and birds also like to munch on the plant, flowers and seeds.

Arrowleaf balsamroot is part of the asteraceae family of flowers, which includes the sunflower, aster, daisy, marigold and zinnia.