Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Meadow Deathcamas
Toxicoscordion venenosum
Trillium/Death-Camas family (Melanthiaceae)

Beautiful and deadly, this plant is more potent than strychnine. One , raw or cooked, can be fatal. Petals and of the DeathCamas (Toxicoscordion venenosum) are less than 1/4 inch long and in a fairly crowded, tight . The petals and of the very similar looking Mountain DeathCamas Anticlea elegans are more than 1/4 inch long and they are in an open, airy . DeathCamas is found at lower elevations than Mountain DeathCamas. Toxicoscordion means "toxic garlic." "Venenosum" is Latin for "venom" or "poison."


©2007 Stan Shebs

Description

Erect , 12-24" tall, with slender stem and long, narrow, grass-like leaves that are mostly . Flowers are white-cream colored in a bell-like . Individual flowers are comprised of 6 unequal that open broadly to expose 6 and 3 .

Field Marks

Dome-shaped flowers in an elongated cluster of white-cream flowers on slender stem with long .

© Al Schneider

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

terminal -- Located at the end (the tip or the apex).

style -- This is a long and thread-like structure that connects the stigma with the ovary. A flower may have a single style, or several of them.

meadow -- Large grass and wildflower filled area with few, if any, trees.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.

basal -- at the base, situated or attached at the base.

linear -- Long and very narrow like a blade of grass.

tepal -- like a flower petal. Tepal is used, instead of petal, when it is not easy to tell the sepals from the petals.

A bulb is an underground stem, the main body of which consists of thickened scales, which are in reality leaves or leaf bases, as in the onion.

A raceme is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along its axis.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.