378 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



Distribution. From South Dakota to Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, California^ 

 Montana and British Columbia. 



Zygadenus chloranthus. Pursh. Smooth Zygadenus 



A glaucus perennial 1-3 feet high, coming from an elongated bulb; leaves 

 flat; flowers borne in racemes, few flowered, greenish; segments of the peri- 

 anth oval or obovate, united below and adnate to the base of the ovary ; capsule 

 longer than the perianth. 



Distribution. Common especially northward in Iowa and Minnesota to 

 Alaska, in the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico and east to Missouri. It 

 may also be poisonous. 



Poisonous properties. Mention of the poisonous nature of the various 

 species of Zygadenus has frequently been made, especially by the early ex- 

 plorers, the poisonous bulbs encountered by them being referred to as poison 

 camas or poison sago, so called to distinguish them from the edible Quamasa, 

 which is commonly called kamas. These species bear essentially the same name 

 today, except that in some places they are also called Lobelia. The bulbs are 

 apparently much more poisonous than the leaves, but if the ground is very 

 dry, sheep are less likely to pull them up than when the ground is moist. After 

 rains, however, or early in the spring it; is possible that some of the bulbs may 

 be pulled up and thus eaten by sheep. In Montana, according to Chesnut and 

 Wilcox, large numbers of sheep are killed by eating death camas. These 

 authors state that in one band two thousand were poisoned and one hundred 

 of these died. In another band two hundred were poisoned and ninety died. 



Prof. Hillman reports that the wild sago (Z. paniculatus) is probably 

 responsible for the death of a considerable number of cattle in certain alkaline 

 districts in Nevada. Dr. S. B. Nelson, in experimenting with this species had 

 wholly negative results. He fed one pound of the plant in blossom and fruit 

 to sheep. Dr. Wilcox and Prof. Chesnut made tests on rabbits and sheep 

 with extracts and fresh plants, and in every instance obtained positive evidence 

 of poisoning. In these instances the plants were not in flower. Prof. Chesnut 

 says stock is poisoned while pasturing by eating the bulbs along with the leaves 

 or the leaves alone, or by the seeds when present in hay, as they sometimes 

 are. Stock, especially sheep, are usually killed by eating the plant before it has 

 blossomed in the spring. Cases of poisoning are so common in Oregon and 

 Nevada that the term "lobeliaed" has been used to indicate the result from this 

 kind of poisoning. 



According to Chesnut and Wilcox the symptoms of poisoning are re- 

 markably uniform : 



The first signs of poisoning are a certain uneasiness and irregularity in the move- 

 ments of the sheep These irregularities rapidly become more and more pronounced, 

 accompanied by incoordination of the muscular movements, spasms and rapid breathing. 

 Although sheep are highly excited under the influence of Zygadenus poisoning, the 

 cerebral symptoms seldom constitute a condition of frenzy. It was readily observed that 

 until a few minutes before death ewes were able to recognize their lambs, and indicate 

 in other ways that they were not in any sense crazed. The later symptoms were those 

 of complete motor paralysis, combined with an exceedingly rapid and sharp breathing 

 and a frequent weak pulse. The duration of these different stages of poisoning varies 

 to a considerable extent, and depends entirely upon the amount of death Camas which 

 the sheep had eaten. 



