I was told the Bear Grass was in bloom up on Blacktail MT up behind where we live. So I took off up the mountain and drove and drove on a narrow snow mobile/cross country lane and found a treasure trove of subject matter.
It is truly, as Lewis put it, a "luxouriant" evergreen, often growing in large, dense patches among lodgepole pine, subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce trees at elevations above 5,000 feet. It is found in the Northern Rockies, the Cascade and Coastal ranges, and the Sierras as far south as central California. Every few years, in June and July, it propagates offshoots from a creeping underground stem called a rhizome (RY-zome, from the Greek word for root). They give rise to sturdy green stalks that brighten the subalpine forest understory with large racemes (clusters) of small, delicately scented, creamy-white flowers.4 After the bloom is over, the offshoot plants die.