Zygadenus elegans Pursh
 
FamilyLiliaceae — APG family: Melanthiaceae
SynonymsZygadenus glaucus Nutt., Anticlea glauca Kunth, Anticlea elegans (Pursh) Rydb.
Common namewhite camass
DescriptionBulbous, the outer bulb-coat fibrous; glaucous; stem with 1-2 leaves; inflores- cence a loose, cylindrical raceme; middle and upper bracts scarious-margined; perianth greenish or yellowish-green; capsule twice as long as perianth.
EcologyOpen woods, heaths, grassy slopes, Populus forests. To at least 2,000 meters in the St. Elias Mountains.
UsesContains the poisonous alkaloid zygadenine, which causes vomiting, lowered body temperature, difficult breathing, and finally, coma.
Hultén's Flora About

This is a digital representation of Eric Hultén’s ‘Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories: A Manual of the Vascular Plants’, which was published by Stanford University Press in 1968. The book was digitized by C. Webb (at UAMN) as part of the Flora of Alaska project, with funding by the US NSF (Grant 1759964 to Ickert-Bond & Webb), and with permission of Stanford University Press. Data and images © 1968 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. Univ. Usage licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0. NB: You may find OCR errors; please refer to the hard-copy if in doubt.