8 



to eighteen inches; they 

 they look a good deal like 



Figure 2. Foot-hill Death 

 Camas, the Young Plant 

 in Early Spring. 



are usually less than one-half inch wide; 



coarse grass blades with a projecting ridge 

 like the keel of a boat on the under side. 

 They are much thicker and more juicy than 

 ordinary grass blades. 



There is at first no well-defined stem, the 

 leaves appearing to rise from near the 

 surface of the ground. The flowers are 

 greenish - yellow or whitish, about one- 

 fourth inch across ; and are produced in a 

 flower cluster from two to ten inches long. 

 The lower flowers bloom first, and may pro- 

 duce seed pods before the upper flowers 

 bloom. The seeds ripen in the summer; 

 but lie dormant until the next spring, when 

 they sprout and grow into tiny leafy 

 plants. These soon develop small bulbs 

 which may not be any larger than a pea 

 by the end of their first summer's growth. 

 It takes a new plant several seasons to form 

 a bulb sufficiently large to begin to produce 

 flowers and seeds. 



The foot-hill death camas differs from 

 the meadow form by having a larger and 

 longer bulb, lying deeper in the soil, usually 

 at a depth of from five to eight inches ; 

 while the bulb of the meadow form is 

 smaller and much shorter and is rarely 

 found more than two inches deep in the 

 ground. The foot-hill death camas is also 

 a much larger plant; its flower cluster is 

 branched at the base, while the much 

 shorter cluster of the meadow form is 

 unbranched. 



Plants Commonly Mistaken for Death Camas. 



Death camas is most commonly confused 

 with the wild onion, although it has no 

 onion odor. When in bloom the two are 

 easily distinguished, for all of the flowers 

 of the onion cluster grow out from the tip 

 of the flower stem, while the flowers of the 

 death camas grow along the sides of the 

 stem as in Figure 4. 



Where the Death Camas Grows. 



Death camas plants may be found on 

 practically every stock range in Nevada, 

 growing more abundantly in the northern 

 half of the State than in the southern. 

 The ground on which the death camas 

 grows is always quite moist in the spring 



of the year; and the typical grazing types in which they are found 



