Toxicoscordion venenosum, with the common names death camas and meadow death camas, is a species of flowering plants in the genus Toxicoscordion, of the Melanthiaceae family. It is native to western North America from New Mexico to Saskatchewan and west to the Pacific Ocean.[2]
The plant is called alapíšaš in Sahaptin,[3] and nupqasaquⱡ ("nup-ka-sa-qush") in Ktunaxa.[3]
Toxicoscordion venenosum grows up to 70 cm tall with long, basal, grass-like leaves. The bulbs are oval and look like onions but do not smell like edible onions of the genus Allium.[4]
The flowers are cream coloured or white and grow in pointed clusters, flowering between April and July. The flower clusters are a raceme (each cluster branches once along the main stalk), unlike its close relative Toxicoscordion paniculatum, in which the flowers are born in a panicle (doubly branched flower stalks). The flowers have three sepals and three petals.[5]
Varieties include:[1]
The plant is widespread across much of Western Canada, the Western United States, and northern Baja California (México).[1][8][9][10][11] It tends to grow in dry meadows and on dry hillsides as well as sagebrush slopes and montane forests.[8][12][13]
All parts of the plant are poisonous. It is dangerous for humans as well as livestock. Consumption of 2% to 6% of the body weight of the animal is likely to be fatal.[14][12] Along with other alkaloids, zygacine and other toxic esters of zygadenine are the primary neurotoxic alkaloids contributing to the plant's toxicity.[15]
The plant is visited by a specialist mining bee, Andrena astragali, which is possibly the only bee that can tolerate its toxins.[16] Others are fatally poisoned.[5]
Kingston Prairie Preserve
Washington Park (Anacortes)
Toxicoscordion venenosum, with the common names death camas and meadow death camas, is a species of flowering plants in the genus Toxicoscordion, of the Melanthiaceae family. It is native to western North America from New Mexico to Saskatchewan and west to the Pacific Ocean.
The plant is called alapíšaš in Sahaptin, and nupqasaquⱡ ("nup-ka-sa-qush") in Ktunaxa.
