Anticlea elegans

Anticlea elegans, formerly Zigadenus elegans, is also known as mountain deathcamas, elegant camas or alkali grass. It is not a grass (though its leaves are grass-like), but belongs to the trillium family, Melanthiaceae.

Mountain deathcamas

Secure  (NatureServe)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Liliales
Family: Melanthiaceae
Genus: Anticlea
Species:
A. elegans
Binomial name
Anticlea elegans
(Pursh) Rydb.[2]
Synonyms

Zigadenus elegans Pursh

It has white lily-like flowers and two-pronged, greenish-yellow glands on each petal (the shape of which can help in distinguishing it from other members of the genus). It is widely distributed through western North America, but absent from California. In Canada its range extends from Quebec and New Brunswick to the Yukon Territory and into Alaska.[3] Plants on the western side of the continent tend to be smaller in size than their eastern counterparts, but have more densely clustered flowers. The plant is extremely poisonous.[4]

Meriwether Lewis, while on the course of his expedition in 1806, collected a specimen near the Blackfoot River.[5]

References
  1. NatureServe (2023). "Zigadenus elegans White Camas". NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia: NatureServe. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  2. Rydb. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 30(5): 273 1903
  3. "Zigadenus elegans Pursh ssp. elegans". USDA Plants Database. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  4. Whitney, Stephen (1985). Western Forests (The Audubon Society Nature Guides). New York: Knopf. p. 546. ISBN 0-394-73127-1.
  5. Schiemann, Donald Anthony. Wildflowers of Montana, page 142. Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula. 2005.
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