Lily6.html

Idaho Mountain Wildflowers

Lily Family: Liliaceae (page 6 of 6)

Camas Lily, Common Camas, Camassia quamash: The Indian word quamash became anglicized to “camas,” the source of both generic and species name for this plant. Early explorers were amazed when they saw fields of camas in bloom. Meriwether Lewis in a description of this plant, wrote in June of 1806, that they stretched out like “lakes of fine clear water.” In Idaho, and in adjacent states, the flowering plants form “lakes” each spring on water-soaked fields. The members of the Lewis and Clark expedition gratefully ate camas roots in the camp of friendly Nez Perce Indians following their perilous crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains. Lewis almost died there, blaming the roots for his illness (but more likely it was from the Indians' tainted salmon). He gathered a specimen in the same place, on the Weippe Prairie, June 16, 1806 while waiting to cross the Clearwater and Bitterroot Ranges the following spring on the return journey. The plant's distinctive flowers are large with six identical tepals and bright yellow anthers. Their color ranges from one location to anothre, from light blue, through the blue-gray color shown here, to purple.

The Foothills Death Camas, Zigadenus venenosus* appears in early spring, and blooms at about the same time as the common camas in early June. A naked stem emerges from a leafy base. This is topped by a cluster of small, white, six-tepaled flowers. One flower is borne on each stemlet in this species . The flowers have six anthers that protrude beyond the tepals, and three styles. In the very closely related foothills death camas, Zigadenus paniculatus, the flowers are smaller and more tightly clustered, with several flowers on each stemlet--botanically, a “panicle,” reflected in the species name. Both plants are poisonous (Latin venenosus = "very poisonous")and may cause death if anmals, or humans, browse on the plants or eat the roots. For this reason, Native Americans harvest the common camas roots while the plants are blooming, for mistaken identity could be fatal.
*The generic name Zigadenus is presently accepted, but it may be that the name Toxicoscordion has priority.

Elegant Camus Lily, Mountain Death Camas, Zigadenus elegans.* The elegant camas grows, sometimes in great numbers, in moist mountain meadows as high as treeline. Usually about a foot high, it may,In favorable situations grow to twice that height, flowering in early to mid-summer according to elevation (left, with scarlet paintbrush and other wildflowers). As the name, elegans, suggests it is the most attractive of the three death camases. Its flowers are largest and its tepals are prominently marked with heart- or yoke-shaped green "glands" at the base of the tepals (right). All of the death camases are poisonous; this one is said to be the least so. Further, since it grows at high elevations it is less accessible to grazing stock. The elegant camas was also first collected by Meriwether Lewis, in the vicinity of today's Lewis and Clark Pass near Lincoln, MT, on July 7, 1806.All of the death camases are found in the Rocky Mountain States and provinces, and west to the coastal mountains.
*The generic name is from the Greek word, zygos, meaning "yoke." Properly the name should be spelled with a "Y," but because it was Zigadenus as originally published that remains orthographically correct. This may be a moot point, however, as there is evidence that it should be reclassified as a species of Anticlea.

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	Camas Lily, Common Camas, Camassia quamash: The Indian word quamash became anglicized to “camas,” the source of both generic and species name for this plant. Early explorers were amazed when they saw fields of camas in bloom. Meriwether Lewis in a description of this plant, wrote in June of 1806, that they stretched out like “lakes of fine clear water.” In Idaho, and in adjacent states, the flowering plants form “lakes” each spring on water-soaked fields. The members of the Lewis and Clark expedition gratefully ate camas roots in the camp of friendly Nez Perce Indians following their perilous crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains. Lewis almost died there, blaming the roots for his illness (but more likely it was from the Indians' tainted salmon). He gathered a specimen in the same place, on the Weippe Prairie, June 16, 1806 while waiting to cross the Clearwater and Bitterroot Ranges the following spring on the return journey. The plant's distinctive flowers are large with six identical tepals and bright yellow anthers. Their color ranges from one location to anothre, from light blue, through the blue-gray color shown here, to purple.
	The Foothills Death Camas, Zigadenus venenosus* appears in early spring, and blooms at about the same time as the common camas in early June. A naked stem emerges from a leafy base. This is topped by a cluster of small, white, six-tepaled flowers. One flower is borne on each stemlet in this species . The flowers have six anthers that protrude beyond the tepals, and three styles. In the very closely related foothills death camas, Zigadenus paniculatus, the flowers are smaller and more tightly clustered, with several flowers on each stemlet--botanically, a “panicle,” reflected in the species name. Both plants are poisonous (Latin venenosus = "very poisonous")and may cause death if anmals, or humans, browse on the plants or eat the roots. For this reason, Native Americans harvest the common camas roots while the plants are blooming, for mistaken identity could be fatal. The generic name Zigadenus* is presently accepted, but it may be that the name Toxicoscordion has priority.
	Elegant Camus Lily, Mountain Death Camas, Zigadenus elegans.* The elegant camas grows, sometimes in great numbers, in moist mountain meadows as high as treeline. Usually about a foot high, it may,In favorable situations grow to twice that height, flowering in early to mid-summer according to elevation (left, with scarlet paintbrush and other wildflowers). As the name, elegans, suggests it is the most attractive of the three death camases. Its flowers are largest and its tepals are prominently marked with heart- or yoke-shaped green "glands" at the base of the tepals (right). All of the death camases are poisonous; this one is said to be the least so. Further, since it grows at high elevations it is less accessible to grazing stock. The elegant camas was also first collected by Meriwether Lewis, in the vicinity of today's Lewis and Clark Pass near Lincoln, MT, on July 7, 1806.All of the death camases are found in the Rocky Mountain States and provinces, and west to the coastal mountains. The generic name is from the Greek word, zygos,* meaning "yoke." Properly the name should be spelled with a "Y," but because it was Zigadenus as originally published that remains orthographically correct. This may be a moot point, however, as there is evidence that it should be reclassified as a species of Anticlea.