Mountain Deathcamas
Anticlea elegans
Trillium/Death-Camas family (Melanthiaceae)
Mountain Death Camas (Anticlea elegans) is a lovely and abundant plant found at higher elevations. Both Mountain Death Camas and its very similar looking foothills cousin, Death Camas, have beautifully airy and symmetrically arching leaves and a long with abundant wide open flowers. Both are very noticeable and very attractive plants. Both are quite poisonous. The are deadly. The two species differ in several main ways: the flower of Mountain Death Camas is about 0.5" wide; the flower of Death Camas is about 0.25" wide. Mountain Death Camas has a more open, elongated flower cluster. Mountain Death Camas has a partially inferior ; has a superior . The on the inside base of each petal are shaped differently on the two species. Small seeming differences, but they are enough to make two different species in two different .
"Anticlea" was the mother of Ulysses and "elegans" is Latin for "elegant." Meriwether Lewis collected the first specimen of this plant in July of 1806 near Lewis and Clark Pass, Montana.

©2009 Barry Breckling