21 



LILY FAMILY (Liliaceae) 



ZYGADENUS OR DEATH GAMAS .(Zygadenus venenosus Rydb. ) 



(Toxicoscordion gramineum Rydb) 



PLATE VII. FIG. B. 



COMMON NAMES: Zygadenus is popularly known by a great variety 

 of names, death camas being, perhaps, the most familiar. Other common 

 names are poison-onion, poison-lily, poison-sego, camass, hog's-potato, 

 mystery-grass, alkali-grass, soap-plant, squirrel-food, and lobelia. The 

 last mentioned should not be used as it causes confusion with another 

 poisonous plant, the Indian tobacco (Lobelia inflata L.). 



DESCRIPTION: The death camas is one of the spring and summer 

 flowers of the West. It is an erect, perennial herb growing from a coated 

 bulb. The leaves are grass-like, long, narrow, and keeled, so much resem- 

 bling the leaves of a grass or sedge that they are often overlooked in the 

 search for poisonous plants. The flowers are arranged in an elongated 

 cluster or raceme, simple or branched, at the top of the central flower-stalk, 

 which is from ten to twenty inches high, rising above the leaves. The 

 flowers are numerous, small, about one-quarter inch in diameter, yellowish 

 or greenish white, each subtended by a leaf-like bract which is shorter 

 than the slender stalk. The flowers bloom from about the middle of May 

 to the end of July, but the flowering period varies with the season and 

 altitude. The seeds ripen in their three-parted erect capsules in July and 

 August, and germinate the following spring, producing the bulb and leaves 

 only during the summer. The flowering stalk appears the year after. 

 The plants grow more or less as scattered individuals, but sometimes in 

 large masses or patches. These patches of the flowering plants are easily 

 distinguished, even at some distance, by their peculiar greenish-yellow 

 colour. 



DISTRIBUTION: Zygadenus prows abundantly on many of the stock 

 ranges of the West. It is found generally distributed from Saskatchewan 

 to British Columbia. It is native to Canada. 



POISONOUS PROPERTIES : The poisonous principle of death camas is an 

 alkaloid, zygadenine, allied to veratrine, which is found in all parts of the 

 plant. The toxicity of the flowering tops and the bulbs is about the same, 

 but the seeds are much more toxic than other parts of the plant. Cases 

 of poisoning, however, are more liable to occur early in the season, before 

 the plants are in flower, as at that time the fresh green leaves are most 

 tempting to stock, long deprived of green food. After seeding, the plant 

 withers. 



ANIMALS AFFECTED: In reference to death camas, T. N. Willing says: 

 "Large numbers of sheep have been affected in the early summer by the 

 prevalence of this weed (in southern Alberta) amongst the grass on which 



634633 



